Jon Rahm Wins 2026 Abu Dhabi Championship in First Start Since LIV
Andy Molitor
35 minutes ago
Jon Rahm won the 2026 Abu Dhabi Championship on Sunday, November 8, shooting 67 at Yas Links to finish 23 under and beat Tyrrell Hatton by two shots. Rory McIlroy was third, four back. If you can get Rahm anywhere near McIlroy’s number next week in Dubai, take Rahm, because that tournament has been his for years.
How Jon Rahm won the Abu Dhabi Championship
Jon Rahm shot rounds of 65, 67, 66, and 67 to finish 23 under, 265, at the 2026 Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship, and he won it on the back nine. Early in that nine, four players were tied at 20 under, per CBS Sports: Rahm, Hatton, McIlroy, and Francesco Laporta. Rahm then made three birdies in five holes starting at the 11th.
Nobody else could keep up. Laporta, who opened the week with a 62, made a triple bogey at the par-3 13th and that was that. McIlroy holed a putt of nearly 50 feet for eagle at the par-5 second and then missed from five feet for par at 15, per Sky Sports. Hatton shot 68, which is enough on most Sundays. Not this one.
Rahm walked to the 18th tee with two shots in hand and played the par 5 for a safe par. “As far as I’m concerned, except the (tee) shot on No. 17, I played a pretty flawless round,” he told CBS Sports. Fair enough.
The table below shows the top of the final leaderboard, per ESPN’s final scoring and Golf News Net’s results page on Sunday, November 8.
| Position | Player | Rounds | Total | To par |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jon Rahm | 65, 67, 66, 67 | 265 | -23 |
| 2 | Tyrrell Hatton | 67, 65, 67, 68 | 267 | -21 |
| 3 | Rory McIlroy | 70, 63, 67, 69 | 269 | -19 |
| 4 | Francesco Laporta | 62, 70, 67, 72 | 271 | -17 |
| T5 | Angel Ayora | 70, 70, 65, 67 | 272 | -16 |
| T5 | Bernd Wiesberger | 65, 69, 70, 68 | 272 | -16 |
| T5 | David Puig | 70, 64, 68, 70 | 272 | -16 |
At the halfway point our read was that one of the three co-leaders would win, and that Hatton was the one to hold. Half right. Our database had a co-leader in a group of three or more winning 21 of 39 times on this tour since 2016, which is now 22 of 40, and you can see the original numbers in our Abu Dhabi 36-hole leaderboard breakdown. Rahm had been 0 for 3 converting a halfway lead on the DP World Tour. Not anymore.
Why this Jon Rahm win matters
This was Jon Rahm‘s first start since leaving LIV Golf and his first in seven weeks, a stretch that included the birth of his fourth child in October. It’s his first win outside LIV since the 2023 Masters, and his first regular DP World Tour title since the 2022 DP World Tour Championship, per CBS Sports and The National.
Sky Sports called it a record sixth Rolex Series win. “It’s been quite a while since I’ve played good in a DP World Tour event!” Rahm said. That’s about as honest as a winner’s quote gets, and the numbers back him up. Before Sunday, he had no wins in nine regular DP World Tour events from the 2024 season through September 2026, per our database.
He still can’t play a PGA Tour event until late August 2027 under the Tour’s current rules, which we covered in what LIV’s end means for Rahm. Sunday didn’t change that. It did change how good he looks while he waits.
Race to Dubai after Abu Dhabi: can Jon Rahm still catch Chacarra?
Barely. The win moved Jon Rahm from 51st to sixth in the Race to Dubai, per The National and Sky Sports, and he would need to win the DP World Tour Championship next week and get help from the players ahead of him to take the season title.
Eugenio Chacarra still leads after finishing tied for 22nd. McIlroy moved past Patrick Reed into second, 533.93 points back, per Sky Sports, and an eighth title would tie Colin Montgomerie‘s record. The finale pays 2,000 points to the winner, 1,335 for second, and 752 for third. Rahm said he hadn’t realized he was still in the race, per The National. “Actually gives me a little extra incentive next week,” he said, per CBS Sports.
Jon Rahm in Dubai: the betting angle
Dubai is the best spot on the calendar for this guy. Jon Rahm has played the DP World Tour Championship five times and has never finished worse than fifth, with three wins, per our DP World Tour database, which runs from the 2016 season through today.
The table below shows Rahm’s finishes at the DP World Tour Championship, from our database as of November 8, 2026.
| Year | Finish | To par |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Won | -19 |
| 2018 | 4th | -14 |
| 2019 | Won | -19 |
| 2022 | Won | -20 |
| 2023 | 5th | -17 |
Our lean is Rahm as the play at anything close to McIlroy’s number, and top 5 over an outright if the price on the win comes in short. We did not have a verified Dubai price on our board Sunday night, so shop it yourself and don’t pay extra because he’s the winner of the week. Before you do, it’s worth knowing how to weigh course history against recent form. And if you’d rather set those weights yourself, here’s how the Rabbit Hole model builder works.
Now the counterargument, and it’s not nothing. Both previous November winners of the Abu Dhabi Championship cooled off the next week in Dubai. Paul Waring in 2024 and Aaron Rai in 2025 each finished outside the top 15 at the DP World Tour Championship a week after winning, per our database. Two players is a tiny sample, and neither one was Jon Rahm at that course.
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Abu Dhabi Championship FAQ
How much did Jon Rahm win at the Abu Dhabi Championship?
Rahm earned 1.53 million dollars from the 9 million dollar purse, per Golf News Net’s results page. Hatton took home 990,000 dollars for second.
Did Rory McIlroy‘s penalty cost him the Abu Dhabi Championship?
Not by itself. McIlroy took a two-shot penalty on the 12th hole Thursday that turned a 6 into an 8, and he finished four back. Take the two shots away and he’s still two behind Rahm.
Where is the DP World Tour Championship played?
The season finale is on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai. It carries a 10 million dollar purse, and only the top 50 in the Race to Dubai get in, per Golf News Net and Sky Sports.
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