ABU DHABI // The high-fives and the backslapping that accompanied Gary Stal’s bewildering win were probably not confined to the 18th green at the National Course last night.
Somewhere deep around the Falcon clubhouse, there surely could be found the marketing men who came up with the tournament tagline, no doubt indulging in a little collective cap doffing. After all, this is the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. We should “Expect the Unexpected”.
So it transpired on Sunday, when the previously infallible Martin Kaymer wilted so spectacularly in the desert it was scarcely believable. At one point possessing a 10-shot lead over the field, Kaymer haemorrhaged to post a 3-over-par 75 and place third. From sure-fire to total burnout in less than two hours.
“It was definitely a very interesting day that I need to reflect on,” Kaymer said with resounding understatement. “Of course I’m disappointed, a little shocked, a little surprised.”
Ditto for everyone else. Kaymer, a three-time winner here, began his final round six shots ahead, and by the fifth he had stretched his lead to double digits. Already at 23-under, he was one shot away from his own record for the lowest tournament total, set in 2011.
Yet a bogey on the sixth – his first in 47 holes – precipitated a mighty collapse, accentuated by a double bogey on the ninth and then a triple four holes later. Ultimately, the par-4 13th would prove his undoing.
Kaymer’s drive found a desert scrub, his drop plugged in the sand, his third shot came up well short and his fourth caromed off the pin to settle eight feet from the cup. A two-putt later and, for the first time since Thursday morning, he had relinquished the lead. Superman’s cape had not so much slipped as disintegrated.
“Funny things happen in golf,” Rory McIlroy, the world No 1, said after a narrow miss at eagle at the last consigned him to a fourth runner-up finish in five years.
Clearly, Kaymer was not amused. He laid the blame at a couple of poor tee shots, a cold putter and a degree of bad luck, but he vowed not to let the collapse eat away at what had initially been a superb start to 2015.
“It had nothing to do with the nerves,” he said. “I was still very calm, was in control of my attitude. The most important thing is I played really good golf over the last three days. If I continue playing that way and just finish it off a little bit better next time, then I’ll be OK.”
While it sounds rather churlish, perhaps he could take a few tips from Stal. The Frenchman, ranked 357th in the world coming into the week, displayed a knack for getting the job done, most notably on 16, when he coaxed home a birdie putt from 22 feet to go two clear.
By that stage, he was 7-under for the day. A title-securing par arrived on 18 and so did the tears, which Stal later said were shed for his mother Christine, who died in May while he was competing in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
“I thought about her a lot, obviously,” he said, again breaking down.
Stal’s first professional victory came a week after his best finish on the European Tour, joint-fifth at the South African Open. A two-time winner on the Challenge Tour, his rewards in Abu Dhabi included a cheque for nearly €380,000 (Dh1.6 million) and close to a three-year exemption to Europe’s main circuit.
Twenty-two days out from his 23rd birthday, he became the tournament’s youngest winner, usurping another one of Kaymer’s records. The German juggernaut was well and truly Stal-led.
“Obviously I feel for him,” Stal said. “If I was in his shoes, I would feel kind of in the dumps. This morning, I thought I was playing for second place.”
Another dizzying week in the capital concluded, then. After Robert Rock, Jamie Donaldson and Pablo Larrazabal, Stal is the fourth surprise winner in four years. Expect the unexpected, indeed.
“It’s really crazy,” Stal said. “It’s unbelievable to win, an incredible feeling.”
jmcauley@thenational.ae
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