Stal becomes a star in Abu Dhabi

Gary Stal overturned an eight shot deficit to deny Martin Kaymer and claim a maiden European Tour title at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.<br /><br />The two-time Challenge Tour winner closed with a brilliant seven under par 65 for a 19 under total, which proved just enough on an exhilarating final day.<br /><br />“It's really crazy and I’m very happy to win this tournament,” said Stal, whose final-day comeback equalled the largest on the 2014 Race to Dubai.<br /><br />“This morning, I was thinking about second place, I didn't think about first place.”<br /><br />Three-time winner Kaymer had carried a six shot lead going into Sunday's final round, and at one stage extended his advantage to ten shots after birdies at three of his first four holes.<br /><br />Frenchman Stal started the day eight behind, but went to the turn in 32 and birdied the tenth just as two-time Major Champion Kaymer was beginning to falter.<br /><br />The German double bogeyed the ninth after finding the desert scrub, and after Stal picked up another shot from 15 feet at the 11th the gap was down to two.<br /><br />Kaymer found more trouble in desert down the left of the 13th, and ran up a triple bogey seven after duffing a pitch from the fairway to slip one behind.<br /><br />Stal then holed from 20 feet at the 16th for birdie, and neither Kaymer nor World Number One Rory McIlroy could stop the 22 year old over the closing holes.<br /><br />McIlroy almost holed from the sand at the last to force a play-off, but the four-time Major winner instead had to settle for a fourth runner-up finish in the event on 18 under, with Kaymer a shot further back in third following a round of 75.<br /><br />“My dad and my mother, they made it possible to be a good golfer, and I just applicate my sport every day,” added Stal.<br /><br />“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.<br /><br />“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.<br /><br />“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.”<br /><br />Kaymer admitted to being somewhat shell-shocked, but believes his general performance this week may bode well for the rest of the year.<br /><br />“I don't really know how to put it into words,” he said. “It was very, very surprising today.<br /><br />“I started off well and hit a couple bad tee shots and cost me double-bogey and a triple-bogey.<br /><br />“Twice I missed the grass and I was in a bush – I had to drop it in the sand.<br /><br />“I missed a lot of putts today, and therefore, was very difficult for me to make birdies.<br /><br />“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, who struggled with the putter in his third round 73, made his move with a hat-trick of birdies around the turn after enlisting caddie JP Fitzgerald’s help on the greens.<br /><br />“Once I started getting JP to read putts, it was a lot better,” said McIlroy after a round of 66.<br /><br />“I started off pretty slowly again and then we just sort of figured out we would try and read them together, and it helped.<br /><br />“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.”