Sunday, January 21, 2018

Abu Dhabi double for fearless Fleetwood, two ahead of Fisher

REPORT BY EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS
 Tommy trophy
The  image of Tommy Fleewood is displayed by courtesy of Getty Images 


Tommy Fleetwood fired a brilliant closing round of 65 for an aggregate of 22-under-par 266 in windy conditions to become only the second player to successfully defend the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
The Race to Dubai champion won the title by one shot from Dustin Johnson and former champion Pablo Larrazábal 12 months ago – a victory which sparked a sensational 2017 European Tour campaign – and he doubled his victory margin this time, finishing two strokes clear of fellow Englishman Ross Fisher.
Fisher had led for much of the final round after an eagle on the second hole followed by two birdies on the front nine, but after a long putt for bogey on the 10th, he was reeled in by Fleetwood, who produced a quite stunning back nine to surge to victory.
Fleetwood made a mockery of the incredibly difficult conditions coming down the stretch, carding six birdies over the closing nine holes, including a superb up and down from the greenside rough on the last. Upon witnessing Fleetwood hole out for victory, Rory McIlroy offered a simple judgement of Fleetwood's back nine: "That was obscene."
Fleetwood’s winning total of 22 under par 266 was just two shots shy of the tournament’s record low score of 24 under par 264 set by Martin Kaymer in 2011, and Fleetwood follows the German as the only other player to retain the title at Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
It was his fourth European Tour title - and first as a father – capping a fine week for the Southport player who celebrated his 27th birthday on Friday and earlier in the week received the Seve Ballesteros Award after being voted Players’ Player of the Year for 2017 by his fellow European Tour players.
Fisher had to settle for his third runner-up finish in six European Tour appearances after a final round of 69, while McIlroy also missed out again in Abu Dhabi on his return to action after a four-month injury absence. 
The four-time Major Champion recorded his eighth top five finish in ten appearances in Abu Dhabi after closing with a round of 70 to finish four shots back on 18 under par 270 in a share of third place with Ryder Cup teammate Matthew Fitzpatrick, who finished with three consecutive birdies for a 69.

Player quotes

Tommy Fleetwood: “I was saying from the start of the week, I've never defended a title successfully until now. I've never come to a tournament as defending champion before. It's a really strange feeling because you feel quite possessive over your trophy and you don't really want to give it back. So that's always been in the back of my mind this week. Luckily enough, I was playing well and I had a chance to win, and the back nine was a very special nine holes. It's a very, very nice feeling.
“Last year, I had had the year of my life by a long, long way on the course. And everything we've done, everything we've talked about, was to make sure that we kept progressing, kept improving.
“I wanted to look at the year like, if Justin Rose had shot level par on that back nine on Sunday in The Race to Dubai, then I wouldn't have had The Race to Dubai title. So, it was sort of important to look at it that way; to try and prove as if you were hurt and you had not had that whole euphoria of achieving something amazing in your career. So all the practice has been very good. I prepared well last week. I had a great week in Malaysia, and then to sort of validate your position of Race to Dubai Champion, and Player of the Year, so early on is really nice and satisfying in a way.”

Ross Fisher: “I knew we were going to face a very tough and tricky day. The wind was blowing. The greens were getting firmer and faster. And then you've only to look at the quality of the leaderboard, playing with Thomas Pieters, you had Tommy Fleetwood just in front with Rory, Fitzy, and you never knew, someone from even earlier could have shot a really low one.
“It was always going to be tricky. But yeah, to get out, four under par, I was flying and in control. Unfortunately hit a poor tee shot on 10 but managed to salvage a great six in the end holing a 20-, 25-footer there, and then I felt like I was hitting good shots but it was just very tricky to get close to the pins. The wind was strong. It was gusty, it was left-to-right,
“Hats off to Tommy. I don't feel like I've lost a tournament. Tommy's gone out there and shot 65 and he's won it, so all credit to Tommy.”
Rory McIlroy: “I'm really happy with how I played. It could have been a little bit better today. I was a little bit scrappy but in the conditions sort 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.
"Tommy shooting six under on that back nine is seriously impressive.. I think the field that was assembled here this week is very, very strong, having the world number one here and a lot of strong players. For Tommy to defend and in such style against such a great field, it bodes well not just for him for European golf. I said earlier, he will be a great addition to the Ryder Cup team come late September."

ALL THE FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72)
 266 T Fleetwood  (Eng) 66 68 67 65
 268 R Fisher (Eng) 67 67 65 69
 270 R McIlroy  (N Ireland) 69 66 65 70, M Fitzpatrick  (Eng) 68 70 63 69
 271 T Pieters  (Belgium) 67 65 67 72, C Paisley  (Eng) 69 67 66 69
 272 A Levy (Fra) 69 65 70 68
 273 H Stenson (Swe) 70 68 70 65
 274 F Zanotti (Paraguay) 67 69 68 70, D Johnson (USA) 72 64 68 70, T Detry  (Belgium) 70 68 64 72, P Casey  (Eng) 70 65 69 70, A Johnston (Eng) 68 68 66 72
 275 J Campillo (Spn) 69 64 72 70
 276 T Hatton (Eng) 69 70 69 68, B Wiesberger  (Austria) 67 68 69 72, B Grace  (SAf) 72 64 67 73, J Wang (SKor) 71 67 67 71
 277 R Sterne  (SAf) 68 72 67 70, P Dunne (Ireland) 68 70 65 74, D Frittelli (SAf) 69 67 67 74
 278 J Rose (Eng) 71 71 67 69, W Ashun (Chn) 71 67 72 68, S Hend (Australia) 71 69 69 69, M Korhonen (Finland) 73 68 68 69, K Aphibarnrat (Thailand) 70 70 68 70
 279 M Kaymer (Ger) 69 68 71 71, S Han (USA) 73 67 69 70, L Jensen (Denmark) 70 71 70 68
 280 M Manassero (Ita) 70 71 70 69, T Bjørn (Denmark) 73 69 69 69
 281 S Brazel (Australia) 67 68 70 76, N Colsaerts  (Belgium) 69 70 71 71, M Wallace (Eng) 71 68 72 70, M Kuchar  (USA) 72 70 69 70, B Hebert  (Fra) 72 68 69 72, R Karlsson (Swe) 71 70 70 70, K Broberg (Swe) 69 69 70 73, R Fox (NZ) 70 66 72 73
 282 D Fichardt (SAf) 73 67 71 71, R Ramsay  (Sco) 68 70 72 72, A Otaegui  (Spn) 70 69 73 70, D Burmester (SAf) 69 72 67 74, M Ilonen  (Fin) 68 74 67 73, R Cabrera Bello (Spn) 72 70 73 67, B An (SKor) 71 70 70 71, M Lorenzo-Vera  (Fra) 71 71 69 71
 283 J Luiten (Netherlands) 69 68 72 74, S Kjeldsen (Denmark) 72 70 72 69, S Sharma (India) 71 70 70 72, J Scrivener (Australia) 69 68 71 75, A Cañizares  (Spn) 71 71 71 70
 284 A Sullivan (Eng) 70 65 73 76, T Olesen (Denmark) 69 73 71 71, J Lagergren (Swe) 69 73 69 73, N Bertasio (Ita) 70 71 69 74, G Stal  (Fra) 72 69 74 69, R Gouveia (Portugal) 72 70 69 73, C Pigem  (Spn) 68 71 72 73, H Porteous (SAf) 72 70 71 71
 285 J Smith (Eng) 72 70 69 74, L Slattery (Eng) 69 72 69 75, S Gallacher (Sco) 68 72 69 76, B Stone (SAf) 69 70 70 76, A Quiros  (Spn) 70 72 71 72, G Bourdy (Fra) 71 70 72 72
 286 G Havret  (Fra) 70 71 70 75
 288 H Tanihara (Jpn) 66 72 74 76
 289 L Bjerregaard  (Denmark) 72 69 73 75, J Kruyswijk (SAf) 75 67 71 76
 292 S Vincent (Zimbabwe) 69 70 73 80

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