ABU DHABI CHAMPIONSHIP: American Chris DiMarco won the inaugural Abu Dhabi Championship yesterday by one shot to earn his biggest paycheck on the European Tour.
The American, who won €275,411, carded a closing 67 for a 20-under-par total of 268. He finished ahead of Sweden's Henrik Stenson and two shots in front of Spain's Sergio Garcia.
"It feels great to be in the winner's circle. A win anywhere is a win - and this in an unbelievable field. We had four guys in the top 11 here, so we had very good field," DiMarco said.
"I just played good, solid golf all week. I got off to a great start today, which really calmed everything down. I didn't have to feel like I had to make birdies, so I could put it in the middle of the green."
Overnight leader Stenson birdied the final hole to finish with 69 and pull ahead of Garcia, who closed with a bogey-free 66.
Ricardo Gonzales of Argentina finished fourth on 271, two shots ahead of Spain's Angel Miguel Jimenez.
Damien McGrane had a solid weekend, and closed with a 70 to lie on eight under par in tied 17th postion.
The Wexford golfer got off to a blistering start with birdies at the first, second and fourth holes. But he bogeyed the fifth, and then parred his way in from there.
DiMarco, who started the final round one shot off the pace, took control with a birdie-eagle start to surge ahead of big-hitting Stenson.
A DiMarco bogey on the par-three seventh allowed the Dubai-based Swede to draw level before DiMarco birdied the par fourth 11th to regain his one-shot lead which he maintained.
WORLD CUP: Sweden's Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann cruised to a three-stroke victory at the Women's World Cup yesterday at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, South Africa.
Sorenstam, the world number one, carded a 70 while Neumann battled for a 77 to give a combined three-over-par 281. They are the second winners of the event after Japan in 2005.
The Scottish pair of Catriona Matthew and Janice Moodie finished second on four-under 284 on another tough day at the par 72 Gary Player course.
Matthew recorded a 69, the low round of the day in the singles, while Moodie produced an even-par 72 for a combined total of three under on the day to lift the Scots from seventh.
Sweden and Scotland were the only teams to cope in the increasingly testing conditions where thick rough and fast greens contributed to some woeful scoring.
Starting the day at 10 under, Sweden played solidly through the front nine with Sorenstam going out in 35 and Neumann in 37. Sorenstam produced two birdies, the first at the par-five second and the next at the par-five ninth after making a bogey on the difficult par-four eighth, where she had a near impossible chip from a greenside bunker.
Fortunately for the Swedes only Scotland made a run at them, but they started the day nine shots behind and could never close the gap sufficiently.
ABU DHABI CHAMPIONSHIP
(Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates)
(British unless stated, par 72)
268 - C DiMarco (US) 71 67 63 67. 269 - H Stenson (Swe) 69 69 62 69. 270 - S Garcia (Spa) 70 69 65 66. 271 - R Gonzalez (Arg) 68 68 67 68. 273 - MA Jimenez (Spa) 70 68 64 71. 275 - J Randhawa (Ind) 71 70 69 65, C Montgomerie 72 68 65 70. 277 - V Singh (Fij) 68 70 69 70, C Schwartzel (Rsa) 69 66 68 74. 278 - I Poulter 72 69 68 69, D Lynn 69 69 70 70. 279 - Z Lian-wei (Chn) 74 69 68 68, T Jaidee (Tha) 68 69 73 69, A McLardy (Rsa) 71 70 69 69, M Foster 71 70 69 69, F Delamontagne (Fra) 71 69 69 70. 280 - P Broadhurst 73 71 68 68, D Fichardt (Rsa) 72 70 69 69, Damien McGrane (Ire) 70 69 71 70. 281 - I Garrido (Spa) 70 69 71 71, R Green (Aus) 70 70 70 71, P Price 73 70 67 71, K Horne (Rsa) 66 74 71 70. 282 - S Dodd 73 71 70 68, T Bjorn (Den) 73 68 71 70, J-F Lima (Por) 70 68 73 71, J Bickerton 72 70 68 72, S Kjeldsen (Den) 72 70 68 72, R Jacquelin (Fra) 74 69 67 72. 283 - A Hansen (Den) 73 70 72 68, G Havret (Fra) 70 68 74 71, S Webster 73 66 72 72, M Fraser 73 69 68 73, R Karlsson (Swe) 73 69 67 74. 284 - G Brand Jnr 72 69 73 70, J Spence 71 69 73 71, O Wilson 72 69 72 71. 285 - J-F Remesy (Fra) 73 70 73 69, P Gustafsson (Swe) 69 73 73 70, G Emerson 73 69 73 70, D Park 73 66 75 71, F Molinari (Ita) 73 70 71 71, W Ormsby (Aus) 74 70 70 71, S Wakefield 75 68 68 74. 286 - A Wall 73 70 74 69, N Dougherty 74 70 72 70, S Kapur (Ind) 75 66 73 72, M Cayeux (Zim) 71 71 72 72, P Casey 72 72 70 72. 287 - G Storm 72 72 73 70, R Bland 70 72 74 71, R Bain 69 73 74 71, P Hedblom (Swe) 73 70 73 71, C Rocca (Ita) 71 73 71 72, F Widmark (Swe) 72 72 71 72, MA Martin (Spa) 74 69 71 73, B Lane 73 71 70 73, A Forsyth 70 74 70 73, G Orr 74 70 69 74, S Hansen (Den) 70 66 74 77. 288 - I Garbutt 73 71 71 73, P Hanson (Swe) 73 69 71 75, JM Lara (Spa) 71 71 69 77. 289 - R Sterne (Rsa) 75 69 72 73, G Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 70 74 71 74. 290 - M Eliasson (Swe) 73 68 76 73, M Lundberg (Swe) 72 72 73 73, S Little 72 72 70 76, M Lafeber (Ned) 71 70 72 77. 293 - J-F Lucquin (Fra) 71 72 74 76.
WOMEN'S WORLD CUP
(at the Gary Player Country Club)
281 - Sweden (A Sorenstam 70, L Neumann 77) 65 69. 284 - Scotland (C Matthew 69, J Moodie 72) 70 73. 288 - Wales (B Brewerton 74, B Morgan 74) 70 70. 289 - United States (P Creamer 73, N Gulbis 73) 68 75. 290 - South Korea (BB Song 76, M Lee 77) 65 72. 291 - Colombia (M Baena 73, C Baena 80) 69 69. 292 - South Africa (L Maritz 72, A Simon 74) 69 77, Finland (M Blomqvist 77, R Hakkarainen 77) 69 69. 294 - Australia (R Hetherington 71, S Waugh 74) 72 77, Germany (M Nagl 73, A Monke 79) 70 72. 295 - Italy (V Zorzi 75, S Cavalleri 73) 73 74. 296 - Japan (A Miyazato 76, S Yokomine 73) 73 74. 298 - France (G Nocera 75, K Icher 77) 72 74. 299 - Brazil (L Bemvenuti 74, C Hannemann 76) 72 77, Taiwan (A Hung 74, Y-P Lin 81) 67 77. 301 - England (K Taylor 73, L Davies 79) 71 78. 302 - Canada (L Kane 77, AJ Eathorne 80) 70 75, Spain (PM Zambrano 79, M Prieto 79) 69 74. 305 - Philippines (D Delasin 73, R Quiazon 79) 71 82. 306 - New Zealand (L Brooky 70, G Scott 85) 69 82.
