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McIlroy carded a closing 66 to win The European Tour's flagship event for the first time following a rollercoaster final day.
The Northern Irishman only took the outright lead for the first time with a birdie on the 71st hole and made another on the last to finish 14 under par, one ahead of Ireland's Shane Lowry with two-time winner Luke Donald and overnight leader Thomas Björn a shot behind in third.
Lowry had briefly been three clear when he started the back nine with a hat-trick of birdies, but drove into trouble on the 13th and ran up a double-bogey six.
Björn began the day five shots clear of playing partner Donald but both players ran up triple bogeys on the sixth to throw the tournament wide open, the Dane taking two attempts to get out of a fairway bunker and then finding more sand with his fourth shot.
Donald responded with five birdies in his next ten holes - chipping in on the 13th and 16th - but crucially failed to birdie the 17th which meant he needed an eagle on the last to tie.
Björn also needed a three on the 18th after birdies on the 16th and 17th, but after Donald had found the water with his approach, the 43 year old's third shot came up well short of the flag to confirm McIlroy's triumph.
McIlroy said: "It's been 18 months since I won on The European Tour and to win the flagship event, I could not have asked for any more.
"I knew coming in here I was playing well. I struggled a little on Friday but played great over the weekend. I was a little fortunate that some of the guys ahead of me made mistakes and I took advantage of it.
"My caddie JP (Fitzgerald) set me the target of 15 under today. I didn't quite get there but 14 under was enough. I really wanted to win before going into the second Major of the season (the US Open from June 12-15) and I could not have asked for a better way to prepare."
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