It is often said that golf tournaments are won, or lost, on the back nine on Sundays.
That was truly the case with Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, with Tommy Fleetwood producing a sensational back nine of five-under par 31 to triumph by one shot over world No3 Dustin Johnson and the 2014 champion Pablo Larrazabal.
The back nine at National is definitely the easier stretch, especially with the wind helping it bare its fangs on the front nine. Conditions were so difficult that the combined score of the field for the first nine holes was a staggering 31-over par.
It was difficult for everyone, except for three-time champion Martin Kaymer and Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who made the turn at three-under par. Both happened to be Fleetwood’s playing partners, so the Englishman was completely under the radar at that stage, having made the turn at even par.
But he simply exploded into contention, holing a calculated chip from the front of the 10th green for an eagle three, and two superb shots set him up for a birdie on the 11th. That helped him join Aphibarnrat on top of the leaderboard at 15-under par, with Kaymer slipping down after back-to-back bogeys on the ninth and 10th holes.
The moment Aphibarnrat found the hazard on the par-3 12th, Fleetwood was on his own, and he did a fantastic job of holding off the chasing pack.
He was solid coming in, and when he did get into trouble – a wayward tee shot forcing him to take a drop on the 18th – he produced a sensational three-wood second shot to the heart of the green after lengthy discussion with the referee.
Fleetwood, ranked 103rd in the world and expected to move close to the 50th when new rankings are released, said: “I played fine the front nine. It was just tough. Martin was making it look so easy, and so was Kiradech to be fair. I was just plugging along. It was really hard to make birdies, and they just started off on fire.
“Tenth was a big turning point, really. You can quite easily chip that to six-foot and miss and make five. I chipped it in and made three and birdied the next. Those two holes were the big difference.
“Some good players chasing me, so very, very proud of this. I did really just concentrate on my own game, kept going. A 31 on the back nine on a Sunday is great, no matter who you are, and I think that’s probably what I’m most proud of over the week.”
Our new CHAMPION 🏆
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Very well-deserved Tommy! #ADGolfChamps pic.twitter.com/O0OFx396Iz
The 25-year-old Englishman closed with a 67 – the best round of the day – for a tournament tally of 17-under par. Aphibarnrat could not make a birdie on the 18th which could have elevated him to tied second place, while Kaymer sank a 15-feet eagle on the last to finish tied fourth on 15-under with the Thai. Austrian Bernd Wiesberger joined them following a round of 68.
Fleetwood, winner of the 2013 Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles, said he could feel he was moving in the right direction with his game from the later half of last year after struggling for almost a year before that.
In an effort to get better, he tried to tinker with his swing and that backfired. But some positive changes last year, including going back to his old coach and having his long-time friend Ian Finnis on his bag, helped.
“I had a really rough time from sort of July 2015 to July 2016 where I was really struggling. Things turned around and I’ve been on an uptrend from August really, and towards the end of the year I had good finishes, British Masters, DP World, Hong Kong. So the next step up is to win after that,” said Fleetwood.
“I tried changing my swing because I thought it would make me better. I was a bit naive and just got going the wrong way, and that was all. I couldn’t do the things that I was trying to do,” he explained.
The end of another AWESOME Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
— ADGolfChamps (@ADGolfChamps) January 22, 2017
We asked the players what they thought..... pic.twitter.com/plLTEcSIkY
“The strengths of my game like my driving, I was really struggling off the tee. I couldn’t get it off the tee and I just had way too many bad shots. It was killing my golf game off.
“I went back to my old coach, Alan Thompson, who has coached me since I was 13. We’ve been able to do things we’ve always wanted to work on. We’re still doing it, really. My swing is not where we want it yet, but it’s very close.”
The next step, Fleetwood said, would be to make sure he keeps improving and gets well inside the top-50 of the rankings in order to get starts in majors and World Golf Championships.
“There’s still a lot of golf to go. So I have to stay on it really. If you’re playing well, you need to make the most of it,” said Fleetwood.
“The sooner I get in the top-50 in the world, the better, and then I want to kick on from there really. You don’t want to be hanging around the 50 mark. I want to get as high as I can.”
