Rickie Fowler started the week as the lowest ranked player in a celebrated three-ball at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. He emerged from the shadows of Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, his friends and first-round playing partners, to finish head and shoulders above everyone at the National Course, as he claimed the Falcon Trophy.
Here, Paul Radley looks at the key numbers behind Fowler’s title triumph in the UAE capital.
REPORT: Rickie Fowler holds off rivals to clinch Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship title
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Fowler had not dropped a shot on the front nine all tournament, until his 34th go. At the par-3 sixth in his final round, he was lucky not to land his tee-shot in the water, but he still double-bogeyed from a tricky sandy lie. Not that it made much difference in the long run ...
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The Californian performed the immediate, and ultimate, comeback at the par-5 seventh. Rather than lose his nerve after the travails of the hole before, Fowler went straight on the attack. He hit a driver off the grass for his second shot to a greenside bunker. His escape from there was probably the shot of the tournament, as he drained it for an eagle. “I’ll have those two shots back, thank you very much ...” he might as well have been saying.
LIVE BLOG: Rickie Fowler wins Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship — Day 4 ss it happened
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Having started the tournament as the world No 6, he won the trophy for the first time on his second visit to the capital. It was a sixth professional title for Fowler, who debuted at this event 12 months ago, and the fourth since last May.
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Inch. Fowler might have had to continue battling for the title — and the tournament organisers could have been fretting about fitting the finish in before bad light stopped play — had Thomas Pieters’ putt at the last not finished an inch away from dropping in. The lanky Belgian was that far from registering a closing eagle, which would have forced a play off against Fowler.
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Fowler, 27, became the second player from the United States to win the Falcon Trophy, after Chris DiMarco won back in 2006. It also meant he joined a celebrated group of Americans who have won Desert Swing events. Tiger Woods won the Dubai Desert Classic in 2006 and 2008, while Fred Couples, in 1995, and Mark O’Meara, in 2004, were also Classic winners.
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