Paul Waring shot a final-day 66 and held off a stellar chasing pack to claim victory at the 2024 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
After a course-record 61 on Friday at Yas Links, the 39-year-old Englishman had taken the pole position at halftime but his five-shot lead was sliced to just one after struggling with nerves amid a round of 73 on Saturday.
On Sunday, though, Waring displayed nerves of steel en route to a bogey-free 66.
European Ryder Cup stars Rory McIlroy, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry were among the big names in the chasing pack during Sunday’s finale.
“It just means so much to so many other things that come with that win,” said Waring, who moved to fifth in the R2D rankings.
“That said, early in the week, to actually keep control of myself in the way that I did today I’m really proud of myself, and (caddie) Alex (Evans) was absolutely amazing. Playing partner was amazing, Shane was great as was Niklas (Norgaard). I’m a bit taken aback right now.
“I’m not that emotional on golf courses. I tend not to fist-pump and I tend not to get up and down, and I tend to stay quite steady. It was actually the putt on 15, the par save. It was only five feet but it was such a solid putt. It just gave me so much confidence coming in that if I just keep hitting putts like that I’ll be fine.
“The one on 17, I could just see it tracking in the whole way, and just knew I was going to hole it. As soon as it left the blade, I knew it was in. So yeah, it was a big moment. Big, big moment.
“I thought the second shot into 18 was absolutely perfect. To see it go long was, ‘right, I’ve still got business, still got stuff to do’.
“So got my head back on. I’ll be honest, legs were shaking a little bit over that last putt. I just wanted to make sure that nothing else could happen and great to roll that one in on the last as well.
“I don’t want to sound over the top or anything but I felt like my golf game has been in such a good place over the last year. Just haven’t put it all together.
“And then this week arrives and you know what, a week for it all to come together, putting nicely, approach play was great, great off the tee. It’s nice to put it all together and get a tournament like this.”
Hatton finished alone in second with a closing 64. McIlroy (64), Thorbjorn Olesen (66) and Matt Wallace (63) shared third on 21 under.
2024 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
Top-10 Leaderboard: Final Round
Pos-Player-Score (Rd 4)
1. Paul Waring -24 (-6)
2. Tyrrell Hatton -22 (-8)
3. Matt Wallace -21 (-9)
3. Rory McIlroy -21 (-8)
3. Thorbjorn Olesen -21 (-6)
6. Antoine Rozner -20 (-9)
6. Thriston Lawrence -20 (-8)
6. Ugo Coussaud -20 (-6)
6. Tommy Fleetwood -20 (-5)
10. Tom McKibbin -19 (-8)
10. Matthew Jordan -19 (-6)
10. Niklas Norgaard -19 (-2)
European tour communications press release and email used to compile recap.
