By John Tully-Jackson
Richard Sterne hadn’t won a golf tournament since 2013 at the start of the week. He still hasn’t, but his close call at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship has him fizzing to tee it up again in Dubai next week.

It was a topsy-turvy slugfest of a final round, with the world number 281 starting hot out the blocks. He birdied four of his first five holes, working his way into a tie at the top with almost permanent tournament leader, Shane Lowry.

But for a loose 5-wood on the 72nd hole leaking right and ending up on cart path (from which he got a rather friendly knee-height drop), it could have been the South African Sterne atop the Rolex Series event leaderboard. Instead the Irishman, who drilled in a low cut 3-wood from four yards ahead of Sterne’s first drop of the hole (from a fairway sprinkler head) and made birdie on the last, claimed the Falcon trophy.

“I got off to a hell of a start to be honest, a little unexpected,” Sterne said. “I enjoyed the start. Front nine was really good, I made a few crucial putts and the back nine, I don’t know, a couple things didn’t go my way and Shane made a couple good putts here and there.

“The 17 was a great putt and the shot he hit into 18 was world-class. It was just out of reach with my 5-wood. I was thinking about taking driver off the deck.”

The 37-year old was looking to claim his seventh European Tour win, his first since the Joburg Open six years ago, but an unfortunate yardage left the ball in his opponent’s court.

“We’re pretty much the same yardage. He’s just got a 3-wood and I had 5-wood. I didn’t have a 3-wood in this week, and 284 is a little stretch for a 5-wood. I tried it and it didn’t come off. He hit a great shot and all credit to him.”

Sterne has a lot to be proud of coming out of this week, scoring his first top-10 since Sep. 2017, and taking home $777, 770. The lack of success on the Tour in recent years has not gone unnoticed, and he is clearly happy to have been back in the mix for top spot.

“I’m just glad that I gave a good performance this week with a strong field. It’s been a while since I’ve had a decent tournament, so I’m pretty happy with the way I performed. I hit the ball really well. I was up there most of the week and stayed up there the whole tournament basically, and I had a chance right down to the last.

“I’m looking forward to the next few weeks now. I’m feeling good and obviously a little bit sore with not pulling it off here but you know, life carries on.”