When Paul Waring arrived at Yas Links with a slender lead ahead of the final day of the 2024 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, you might have assumed he was feeling at least a hint of nerves.
After all, the unsung Englishman, who is 40 on his next birthday, had won just once before, six years previously, out of 332 starts on the DP World Tour.
The glare of the spotlight is not exactly the natural habitat for him in the way it might be for, say, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry, or any of the other gilded vultures perched behind him in the ravenous chasing pack.
If he was feeling trepidation, he had a funny way of showing it. As he disembarked the Genesis GV80 tournament car which had brought him to the course, he had his cap on back to front. He flashed his biceps at the TV camera filming his arrival, blew a kiss, and proclaimed his love for everyone.
Was it a front? Or did he really feel that comfortable? “I felt OK today, I was worse yesterday,” Waring said.
“[Saturday, when he shot over par] was the harder day for me, as I had a bit of confidence about me today. You always have a slow round in four, a day you have to get through.
“To get through that and still be in the lead, I knew I was going to give myself a chance, even if someone made a run at me.
“I knew I was going to be able to control what I was doing quite well. I felt like I controlled my golf ball well into the middle of greens, and I felt like I could have been a little more aggressive at times if I’d needed to be.”
And the truth was, he didn’t need to be. Despite being without a title since the 2018 Nordea Masters in Sweden, and having had a couple of runner-up finishes this year, he was coolness personified as the starry field jostled for position behind him.
At the penultimate hole of the competition, he rolled in a long putt for birdie to assume a one-stroke lead from Tyrrell Hatton, the multiple Rolex Series tournament winner who had the clubhouse lead at 22-under.
Waring’s drive at the 72nd hole was perfect. He opted against a layup, and went direct for the heart of the green. His approach might not have exactly matched the one he played in setting up the eagle that gave him a course-record 61 on Friday, which he had termed “the best shot I’ve ever hit”.
This time it ran through the back, but he was comfortably up and down from there for another birdie that saw him finish on 24-under and claim the Falcon Trophy.
His calmness under pressure was remarkable. He said it was all down to delegation: he would worry about plotting his way round the course, while his caddie, Alex Evans, looked after any scoreboard watching that needed doing.
“I was just trying to play golf, and he was managing how aggressive he wanted me to be,” Waring said.
“Sometimes you have to do that. If you are looking at leaderboards the whole time, you know what you have to do, but you also know who the people are behind you.
“[Playing partners] Shane Lowry is a real good lad, a good friend of mine, as is Niklas Norgaard, and I had my best mate on the bag, so we had a bit of a laugh today. It was good fun.
“With all the pressure that was on, it was still a bit of a laugh out there. I’m wearing shorts, out in the beautiful sunshine, so it felt to me like I was on holiday out there at times.
“I was looking around, taking in the surroundings, and I felt like I was in a good place.”
