ABU Dhabi HSBC Championship Report

Not in a million years would anyone have said that a slim, dark and little-known Frenchman would emerge from the chasing pack, and, from eight shots back at the start of the day, overhaul German star Martin Kaymer to win his first European Tour victory in the prestigious Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.

But that's exactly what happened on Sunday when the humble, almost shy Gary Stal, whose world ranking before the tournament was way up in the 300s, closed with a stunning 7-under 65 and a 19-under 269 total and Kaymer, a three-time Abu Dhabi champion who, once more, had looked to be the runaway winner earlier in the round when he led by all of 10 shots, inexplicably blew himself out of the water with a double and a triple bogey around the turn and after closing with a 75, had to be content with third place, two shots back and one behind world No 1 Rory McIlroy.

Yes, even more credit to the youngster Stal was the fact that he kept his nerve heading down the closing stretch with McIlroy breathing down his neck.

After vainly fighting with an awry putter in Saturday's third round when he posted a 71, McIlroy came storming back on Sunday and in the end only missed out on matching Stal's 65 and forcing a play-off when his chip from the sand at the 18th slid by the hole by no more than a hair's breadth and he had to settle for an 18-under 270 and sole second place.

A second Frenchman, bearded Victor Dubuisson (67) and the towering, 22-year Belgium young gun Thomas Pieters (70) tied for fourth place on 16-under with new prospect Tyrrell Hatton (67) and fellow Englishman James Morrison (67) and Austrian Bern Wiesberger (71) tied for 6th on 14-under.

Shades of last week's South African Open when Charl Schwartzel, who grabbed a top-10 finish at Abu Dhabi this week with a 13-under 275, blew a five shot lead and gifted a title he had never won to little-known Englishman Andy Sullivan, Kaymer did pretty much the same thing - but in an exaggerated form.

On Sunday morning Stal, buoyed by his 5th place finish at the SA Open, was targeting second place. With the way a regal-looking Kaymer was playing, first place was out of the question, he admitted in an interview afterwards when he described his victory catch-up, which equalled the largest on the 2014 Race to Dubai,  as "really crazy".

He started the day eight shots behind, but charged to the turn in 32 and birdied the 10th at about the same time that Kaymer, a two-time major champion, first hit the wall with that double bogey at the 9th after finding the desert with his drive.

When Stal picked up another shot from 15 feet at the 11th the gap was down to two and when Kaymer ran into more trouble in the desert scrub on the 13th and ran up a triple bogey seven, the Frenchman edged one shot ahead.

Then when his immaculate putter holed from 20 feet for another birdie at the 16th Stal moved two clear into a lead he would never relinquish.

McIlroy, whose suspect putting, especially on Saturday, cost him dearly in his first outing of 2015, did get close after he called in his caddy to help read the lines going down thaw final stretch, but it simply wasn't close enough to prevent a second week of shocks on the European Tour.

Kaymer didn't enjoy what had happened to him one little bit, saying: “I don't really know how to put it into words. It was very, very surprising today.

“I started off well then hit a couple bad tee shots and it cost me a double-bogey and a triple-bogey.

“Twice I missed the grass and I was in a bush – I had to drop it in the sand.

“I missed a lot of putts today, and therefore, it was very difficult for me to make birdies."

But, he pointed out, there were “The positive".

"I was playing really good golf. That was nice after such a long break. The first three days, I played so solid, I barely missed a fairway. Today was a little bit different, but there were still a lot of positive, and that's tough to say after that round.”

Stal made a point of singling out his parents in his post-victory interview.

“My dad and my mother, they made it possible for me to be a good golfer," he said.

“I thought about all the people that were looking at me. I thought about my mother, Christine, who died in May while I was playing Wentworth - she passed away while I was playing, and I thought about her a lot this week, obviously.

“When I saw my name on the leader board, I started thinking, well, don't get excited, but I'm very happy obviously. It's an incredible feeling.

“For the four days, my attitude has stayed the same. I've told myself at the beginning of the tournament that I wouldn't get upset, and it paid off. I thought if I could putt well, if I could play shot by shot, it would pay dividends. Therefore, I just kept the same way, the same attitude.”

And yes, It paid off alight. Apart from McIlroy and Kaymer, Stal was able to beat some other mighty fine golfers.

THE TOP 10 ABU DHABI FINISHERS
-19 Gary Stal(FRA) 68 69 67 65 269
-18 Rory McIlroy (NIR) 67 66 71 66 270
-17 Martin Kaymer (GER)64 67 65 75 271
-16 Victor Dubuisson (FRA)69 72 64 67 272
-16 Thomas Pieters (BEL)65 67 70 70 272
-14 Tyrrell Hatton (ENG) 66 71 70 67 274
-14 James Morrison (ENG) 68 67 72 67 274
-14 Bern Wiesberger (AUT) 72 65 66 71 274
-13 Jamie Donaldson (WAL) 73 67 65 70 275
-13 Ross Fisher (ENG) 71 69 69 66 275
-13 Charl Schwartzel (RSA) 71 68 65 71 275

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