Rory McIlroy has closed the gap on Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed to less than 310 points after finishing joint-second in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

McIlroy came up just short of repeating his 2014 success in the DP World Tour’s flagship event as victory went to American JJ Spaun by two shots at the Surrey venue.

After signing off with a 68 for a 15 under total, McIlroy had to settle for being joint runner-up along with Aaron Rai, Adam Scott and Manuel Elvira.

With Reed having pulled out during the second round on Friday due to a wrist injury, it was a timely big finish from McIlroy in his bid to equal Colin Montgomerie’s record of eight Race to Dubai titles.

placeholder image — Rory McIlroy during yesterday’s BMW PGA Championship final round at Wentworth. (Photo by Adam Davy/PA Wire)

“Yeah, I'm excited,” admitted the Holywood man of his position in the season-long standings. “I have three events until the end of my DP World Tour season. I'm not sure what Patrick's schedule looks like coming up, but I feel like I have enough opportunities. And I'm going back to a golf course in India that I played for the first time last year, so I'll know it a little bit better; and then going to Abu Dhabi and Dubai where I had a lot of success in my career. Excited for the opportunity, and it would be obviously amazing to match Monty's record.”

Wentworth resident McIlroy was in with a chance of winning on his new home patch before Spaun picked up four birdies in the last five holes to land a third victory by an American in this event in the last six editions.

“I had my chances out there,” said the world No 2. “I putted okay for the most part this week but I missed a lot of putts. I feel over the weekend, or at least today. Yeah, wish I had some of those putts back, but I have to be encouraged with where my game is at. Hit the ball really well today. Hit the best I hit it during the course of the week and I'm encouraged with the signs that my game is going and just have to keep working at it.”

Spaun, last year’s US Open champion, emulated Arnold Palmer (1975) and Billy Horschel (2021 and 2024) by being crowned as BMW PGA champion.

“It means so much,” said Spaun. “You know, I've kind of blossomed into this player I never thought I could be...the stars kind of aligned this week for me to come out on top, and I'm just grateful.”