Stal Surprise Winner in Abu Dhabi


While Gary Stal fired a 7-under 65, third-round leader Martin Kaymer stumbled to a 75 to give the Frenchman the surprise victory in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. The European Tour event took place at Abu Dhabi Golf Club in the Middle East.

The 22-year-old Stal had a spotless seven-birdie outing to finish at 19-under 269. No. 1-ranked Rory McIlroy also surged in the final round, coming home with a 6-under 66 to take second another stroke back.

Kaymer, who began Sunday with a seemingly insurmountable six-shot lead and an ideal chance to win the tournament the fourth time, looked fine early on with three birdies in his first four holes. But the 30-year-old German soon met catastrophe, recording double- and triple-bogeys and another bogey for a 75 and third place at 271.

"It's really crazy and I'm very happy to win this tournament," said Stal, who rallied from an eight-stroke deficit for his first European Tour title. "This morning, I was thinking about second place, I didn't think about first place."

"My dad and my mother, they made it possible to be a good golfer, and I just applicate my sport every day," Stal told the European Tour website. "I thought about all the people that were looking at me. I thought about my mother, Christine, who died in May while I was playing Wentworth - she passed away while I was playing, and I thought about her a lot, obviously.

"When I saw my name on the leaderboard, I started thinking, well, don't get excited, but I'm very happy obviously. It's an incredible feeling. For the four days, my attitude has stayed the same. I've told myself at the beginning of the tournament that I wouldn't get upset, and it paid off. I thought if I could putt well, if I could play shot by shot, it would pay dividends. Therefore, I just kept the same way, the same attitude."

Kaymer, who began with rounds of 64, 67 and 65, was stunned afterward but feels his overall play during the week was encouraging. "I don't really know how to put it into words," the reigning U.S. Open champion said. "It was very, very surprising today.

"I started off well and hit a couple bad tee shots and cost me double-bogey and a triple-bogey. Twice I missed the grass and I was in a bush - I had to drop it in the sand. I missed a lot of putts today, and therefore, was very difficult for me to make birdies.

"The positive is I was playing really good golf. That was nice after such a long break, when you play the first three days, I played so solid, missed barely a fairway. And today was a little bit different, but there's still a lot of positive, and that's tough to say after that round."

McIlroy rallied from a third-round 73 thanks to help from caddie J.P. Fitzgerald in reading the greens. "Once I started getting JP to read putts, it was a lot better," said McIlroy.

"I started off pretty slowly again and then we just sort of figured out we would try and read them together, and it helped. It was nice to finally get it going, but just that little stretch yesterday and then early on today sort of cost me the tournament."

Tied for fourth at 272 were France's Victor Dubuisson (67) and Belgium's Thomas Pieters (70).

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015002/leaderboard/index.html.