World number 60 Li Haotong held off four-time major winner Rory McIlroy to win the Dubai Desert Classic.

The Northern Irishman turned a shot deficit at the start of play into a two-shot lead at the 10th, but his Chinese rival hit birdies on 13 and 15.

An errant McIlroy drive led to a bogey on the 16th.

And although he birdied the final two holes, Li, 22, did the same to win by a shot on 23 under as both players finished with three-under-par 69s.

Li, who won the 2016 China Open and finished third at last year's Open Championship, becomes the first Asian winner of the event and earned the biggest victory of his fledgling career.

The Chinese player also made headlines in June 2017 when he threw his putter in a lake at the French Open, only for it to be fished out by his mother.