As McIlroy caps his year with another win in Dubai and his sixth Race to Dubai title, there's a lot to unpack from a tumultuous year.

Given those circumstances, it surely didn’t even matter how McIlroy made it over the finishing line. Stumbling would be just fine, as long as it happened. Which is just as well. For long enough in the middle of his final-round 69—after four birdies in his first five holes and before two more in the last three holes—the 35-year-old Northern Irishman was doing many of the things golfers do when they end up losing.

Rory McIlroy has once again taken home the Order of Merit, but this win meant a little more than the others. He explained why.