Thomas Pieters moved back into the world’s top 50 for the first time since April 2018 after outlasting a star-studded field to claim the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship title.
In the opening Rolex Series tournament of Europe’s rebranded DP World Tour’s new season, the former Ryder Cup player was calmness personified while the others fell away in the challenging breezy conditions at Yas Links. For the latest odds visit boku online casino
A par on the opening hole was enough for Pieters to move into a share of the lead when overnight leader Scott Jamieson made bogey, with the Belgian adding pars over his next six holes before making a close-range birdie at the eighth to move into a three-shot advantage.
Pieters squandered a birdie opportunity at the 10th and three-putted from inside 10 feet at the par-five 11th to see his lead cut to one, while Rafa Cabrera Bello followed a front-nine 34 by birdieing the par-four 14th to briefly move into a share of the lead.
Pieters parred his way in from there and signed for a level-par 72 and a ten-under total, leaving the 30-year-old one clear of Shubhankar Sharma and Cabrera Bello and earning him a sixth victory on the Tour.
Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter were among the many players to move in and back out of contention at various points during a tense and challenging final day. Hovland’s hopes were derailed with a double-bogey at 15, and the Norwegian ended up in a share of fourth place with Victor Dubuisson, who closed with a 68, while last year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC champion, Tyrrell Hatton, shot a closing 67 to finish tied sixth alongside Poulter, James Morrison and Denmark’s Jeff Winther.
Hatton all but ended his chances of retaining the title with a disastrous five-over-par nine on the closing hole on Saturday as he signed for a third round 77. He later said that he would quite happily ‘blow up’ the par-five hole which features water all the way down the left-hand side.
Adam Scott was briefly in contention but bogeyed two of his last four holes to slip to tied-10th alongside Jamieson, who joined Shane Lowry – who triple-bogeyed his opening hole – in carding a five-over 77.
A delighted Pieters, who secured a career-best $1.3m pay day with the win and is now up to 31st in the world ranking, said: “It’s fantastic. I was in control of my ball flight all day and although my putting maybe wasn’t quite there, I felt really confident. It’s fun when you’re in control of your golf ball. You can be creative and that’s how I felt out there today. I was going to go for the green on the 18th, but my caddy told me I was two clear, so I decided to lay up, and that proved good enough.”
He added: “Winning a Rolex Series is as good as it gets in Europe. I want to play all of the big tournaments and hopefully this gets me close. As a golfer, top-50 is your strive point, and when I dropped out of it three years ago, I took it badly, but I’m happy to be back again. I feel like I’ve turned the corner and playing really good golf again. My putting has improved massively and I feel like that’s the thing that really kept me going over the weekend.”
Thomas Pieters’ winning gear
Driver: Titleist TSi2
Fairway woods: TaylorMade SIM2 Max (3, 7)
Irons: Titleist 620CB (4-iron), Titleist 620MB (5-9)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey Design SM8 (46, 52, 56), Titleist Vokey 2021 Prototype (58, 60)
Putter: Scotty Cameron Tour Type SSS SB-2
Ball: Titleist Pro V1
The post Pieters powers to victory in Abu Dhabi appeared first on Golf News.
Leave a comment