If Thomas Pieters is going to win this year’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, he might want to think about working on his valedictory speech.
The Belgian played the least strokes of anyone on the opening morning at the National Course and is just one-shot off leader Martin Kaymer. He probably said the fewest words, too, judging by his post-round analysis.
- Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship tee times - round two
Does the lay out suit him? “Yes.” Does the little-heralded world No 237 have any targets for his second year on the European Tour? “Definitely.”
Namely? “I’ll keep them for myself,” Pieters said. “You will see.” Which is not a lot to go on.
On this evidence, if he does go on to claim the Falcon Trophy on Sunday night, his acceptance oration might only extend to a one-word answer.
In fairness to him, he is still new to all this. He is only 22 and still finding out the best way to make cuts on the European Tour, let alone know what to say when he is at the top of the leaderboard.
He is a couple of shots ahead of Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler, each of whom could publish a fairly chunky tome using the words that have been said about them just this past week.
Pieters, meanwhile, arrived in the capital entirely under the radar. He played in the second match on the course, alongside Gregory Havret and David Horsey, and made the most of the cool and still conditions to card an opening round of 65.
Abu Dhabi is one of a few tournaments he has previous experience of. He played here on a sponsor’s invite 12 months ago, but did not meet his own expectations.
“I didn’t play very well last year because I just came straight from a skiing holiday, so I wasn’t prepared,” said the tall Belgian. “But I was very happy to get the invite.”
Until Kaymer came in, Pieters held the club-house lead, a shot ahead of Branden Grace and Gregory Bourdy, who finished on six-under.
Grace did well to keep the pace with his own playing partner, Thorbjorn Olesen, who was three under after the first four holes early in the morning.
“It was weird,” Grace said. “Thorbjorn got out of the blocks birdie, birdie, birdie and Danny and myself were thinking, ‘What the hell is going on here?’
“But we managed to get a couple of nice iron shots and hit them close. It was a good start.”
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