ABU DHABI // Gary Stal returned to the scene of his only professional victory and at first felt a little, well, weird.
The Frenchman, last year’s surprise winner at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, drove into Abu Dhabi Golf Club on Tuesday, when he immediately noticed he shared company with the best players in world golf.
Given his status this week, Stal's image adorns one of the towering billboards that line the entrance to the club, alongside the instantly more recognisable Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler.
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For a world No 136 with one win and four top-10 finishes in 65 European Tour events, to be grouped with three of the top six players in the global rankings seemed slightly incongruous. He conceded as much to the media later that day.
“Yes, very strange,” Stal said.
Then again, he still finds the whole Abu Dhabi-champion thing hard to fathom, much like everyone else did last year.
That is no slight on Stal, but he triumphed after Martin Kaymer, a three-time winner of the event and double major champion, blew a 10-shot lead late on the final day of the event.
The victory catapulted the typically understated Stal into the limelight, which he struggled to embrace thereafter.
Even though he finished tied-fourth at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic two weeks later, he missed cuts in almost half of the events through the rest of the season.
However, a new year has brought fresh optimism. “It’s kind of a common phenomena that when you win, you deal with things you’re not used to,” said Stal, through the help of an interpreter.
“I continued to practice and work hard, and I just have to accept that it will come back again.
“But for that period of time, it was something new and I had to deal with it. I feel now that I’m ready for the next step again.”
Likewise, Kaymer has come to terms with that transpired 12 months ago.
To be fair, the German had already done that by the time he resurfaced at last year’s Desert Classic and views the episode as a positive.
“Of course, once in a while you think about it,” he said.
“It’s just human and very normal. And I’m sure it might happen this week, as well.
“But at the end of the day, I don’t want this to overshadow my whole success and the great experience and one of the best emotions I’ve had on this golf course. I don’t want that.
“It was only two hours. I had 50/55 other great hours here before on the golf course. So I’d rather focus on that.”
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