Two days after being handed a 27th birthday cake by Rory McIlroy and just over a month since he was married, Fleetwood stormed home with six inward half birdies to win by two shots all thanks to a round 66 to win by two shots at 22-under par.

The victory is Fleetwood’s fourth European Tour title and his first in regular tournament competition since being crowned European No. 1 late last year.

And Fleetwood further celebrated with young son, Frankie in his arms who was born at the end of last September.

"This is the biggest thing for us after last year, I had the year of my life by a long, long way on the course,” he said.

“And everything we've done, everything we've talked about, sort of that month off was to make sure that we kept progressing, kept improving.

“We sort of really wanted to look at the year like, you know, if Justin Rose had shot level par on that back nine on Sunday in final of the Race to Dubai, then I wouldn't have won the Race to Dubai.”

Fellow Englishman Ross Fisher, who had taken the lead early when he eagled the second, settled for second place with a round of 69 for a 20-under par total.

McIlroy, who shot a round of 70 to be tied in third place with Matthew Fitzpatrick and who birdied his closing three holes in a 69, was headed up the road to Dubai and Thursday's starting Dubai Desert Classic delighted with his effort in his first event in some three months.

The four-time Major winning McIlroy went into the final round just one shot off the lead and got the start he wanted with two birdies in his opening four holes but stalled over the next dozen holes with a bogey at six and just the one birdie at the eighth hole.

He then bogeyed the 17th and for a second day running birdied the last.

McIlroy’s third place result continues a run of near misses in the UAE capital but with the Northern Irishman delighted with his form over the four rounds and in his first event in some three months.

“I'm really happy with how I played. It could have been a little bit better today,” he said.

“I was a little bit scrappy but the conditions sort of, I felt like shooting anything in the 60s would have been a good score. I didn't quite do that; I shot 70. Overall, I'm really happy how I played this week.

“My game is in really good shape and I saw some really, really positive signs.

“So, I'm looking forward to next week in Dubai and obviously looking forward to the rest of the season.

And when asked what pleased him most, McIlroy responded:  

“I think my attitude, my patience, my comfort level of being back in the environment.

“I didn't really know -- I know it's only three months, but things change and I felt like maybe I needed a couple of weeks to get back into the thought process that you need to get into for competitive golf and scenarios and this and that.

“But I felt like I got into that pretty quickly this week, so that was probably the most pleasing thing.”