Rock-solid Robert wins in Abu Dhabi

England’s Robert Rock held off the challenge of Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to claim the biggest win of his career at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.

Entering the final round tied for the lead with Woods, Rock birdied three of his first six holes to set up a one-shot victory on 13 under.

McIlroy birdied the last to finish alone in second, while Woods, having bogeyed the tenth, parred the rest of the back nine struggled for a level-par 72 to finish tied third.

Graeme McDowell shot a superb 68, which included a hole-in-one at the 12th and birdies at the last two holes to join Woods in third along with Thomas Bjorn.

The 14-time major champion Woods started well with a 50-foot birdie putt on the second and another birdie on the third, but gave both those shots back with bogeys on the fourth and fifth.

Rock, who also birdied the second and third, knocked in another on the sixth to open a three-shot lead.

“I was just happy to be playing with Tiger,” admitted the 34-year-old, who can now bank a cheque for £291,646 after closing with a two-under-par 70. “That is a special honour in itself. Early on I was very nervous but I hit some good shots and then I began to think, ‘why not?'”

But when Woods birdied nine, the lead was back to one. Unfortunately for the American, who hit only five greens in regulation all day, that was as close as he’d get.

“I was right there with a chance to win, but just didn’t get the job done,” said 36-year-old Woods. “I got off to a beautiful start but misjudged the wind on the next two holes and felt I was just a touch off.”

World number three McIlroy exerted a little late pressure with a birdie on the par-five last to set the clubhouse lead on 12 under. That meant Rock, who’s maiden Tour win was at last year’s Italian Open, had a two-shot cushion on the 18th tee – a cushion that would prove useful.

After pushing his drive into the shrubs inside the water hazard, Rock elected to take a penalty drop, knowing that a bogey-six would be good enough unless Woods eagled the last.

Woods pulled his second shot into deep rough and, after he failed to hole his pitch, Rock had the luxury of two putts from 25 feet to complete comfortably the best win of his 14-year career.

It moved Rock up to second place in The Race to Dubai and secured his place at the WGC Matchplay in Tuscon and the HSBC Champions in China.

“I’ve no idea how I feel at the moment,” added Rock, whose previous best finish here was a tie for 47th. “I think it will take a few days to sink in because it was such a high quality field and I haven’t done particularly well here in the past. But I played great this week and, obviously, I’m absolutely delighted.”

Abu Dhabi Championship final leaderboard
-13: R Rock (Eng) -12: R McIlroy (NI) -11: G McDowell (NI), T Bjorn (Den), T Woods (US) – 10: M Manassero (Ita), G Coetzee (SA)
Selected others: -9: F Molinari (Ita), P Lawrie (Sco) -8: S Garcia (Spa) -7: G Maybin (NI) -6: L Westwood (Eng) -3: P Harrington (Ire) -1: L Donald (Eng)

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