Paul Waring wins first title in six years

Paul Waring signed for a bogey-free 66 to reach 24-under and win the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship by two shots, his first win since the 2018 Nordea Masters.

“It just means so much to so many other things that come with that win,” said the Englishman.

“To actually keep control of myself in the way that I did today I’m really proud of myself, and Alex [Evans, his caddie] 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.”

England’s Tyrrell Hatton finished second at 22-under after closing with a bogey-free 64.

One shot further behind, Rory McIlroy made a single bogey to card a 64 and move into a share of third place at 21-under.

Sharing third place were Denmark’s Thorbjørn Olesen who signed for a bogey-free 66 and England’s Matt Wallace, also bogey-free, who fired two eagles at the par-5s 2nd and 11th.

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