Rory McIlroy won his second Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday. (Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy won his second Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday. (Getty Images)

Rory McIlroy sort of called his shot this week in Dubai.

"I am disappointed if I don't win, to be honest," he said on Wednesday. "You're not here to try to finish in the top five."

Well, he did finish in the top five on Sunday in Dubai, and he also walked away with his second Dubai Desert Classic win in seven years (he also won in 2009) with a closing 70 on Sunday to get to 22 under and win by three over Alex Noren.

"I never even thought of winning; he's playing so good," said Noren.

He has a multimillion dollar legal battle looming over the next few weeks, so he just goes out and shoots 66-64-66-70 with two bogeys on the week.

I'd hate to see him in a week when he's focused.

And that's the point, isn't it?

There's nobody in the world right now who can roll with McIlroy when he's playing his best. Heck, it's a challenge when he's only playing above average golf.

"It’s nice to be able to put my name on that trophy again," said McIlroy, "It felt like I was coming second every time I was teeing it up so it was time for a change and obviously the only way I wanted to go was one better and thankfully I was able to do that today.

"I played very nicely all week; I did what I needed to do today. I didn’t play quite as well as the first three days but I played a solid round of golf and kept my nose in front."

The scary part for the rest of the planet is that McIlroy is continuing to mentally sharpen his efforts. He knew he could shoot between 68-72 on Sunday and win pretty easily, so that's how he played coming down the stretch.

That's the Tiger Woods formula: crush the field for 54 holes and keep them at arm's length on Sunday. McIlroy is putting it to good use.

So what's next for world No. 1?

He'll head to Ireland for his court case which will play out over the next few weeks before turning to Florida for the Honda Classic in March.

McIlroy is either in the middle of or at the end of a wild stretch of European Tour success -- his last seven European Tour finishes look like this: 1st, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 1st.

He now has 10 career European Tour wins which is T27 all-time. There's also this:

Whether he can replicate all of this on the PGA Tour for a full season is one of the few questions he has yet to answer. At this point, I'd almost be more surprised if it didn't happen than if it did.

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