Fowler wins Abu Dhabi Championship

Pieters (67) was runner-up, with the fast-finishing Rory McIlroy (68) and Henrik Stenson (67) tied for third.

Hole out Two moments of Fowler genius in Abu Dhabi encapsulated his brilliance.

Fowler received the championship’s coveted Falcon Trophy and his share of the U.S. 2.7 million prize pursethe biggest in the Desert Swingfrom the United Arab Emirates’ Minister for Culture Youth and Social Development Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan. “It’s nice to have the game where it’s at right now going into the season, instead of trying to work on things and trying to find stuff”, said Fowler who hoped to take the momentum of this win into 2016’s majors.

“I want to be playing against the best in the world and beating the best in the world”.

England’s Ian Poulter had looked to be the biggest challenger to Fowler on the final day as he moved menacingly to 12-under, but three bogeys on the back nine saw him slip back to finish seven shots off the pace. That’s an average age of 25.9, to which the 22-year-old Spieth good-naturedly tweeted of the other three, “Wow they must be old”. This is the best I’ve been ranked.

I was disappointed with my play last season and sometime you need a kick like that to push you. The win follows Fowler’s success in the Scottish Open on the European Tour last July. The lead was three heading to the back nine, which Fowler played expertly with a string of pars that never really had him in serious trouble of losing the lead – that is, until McIlroy made a furious run at the finish.

“I’m excited. There’s definitely some fine-tuning that we can do and we can always get better”.

He had another at the first to dip to four under for the day, but after a double bogey at the fourth dropped two more shots, one at each of the seventh and ninth holes.

“I’ve always struggled with the greens here”, McIlroy said.

From drifting out to two under par at one stage on Friday, he rallied to close in a tie for fifth place on 11 under par but admitted afterwards that he was “beat up, mentally and physically”, having played in South Korea, China, Australia, Bahamas, Hawaii and now Abu Dhabi since October. I didn’t give myself a lot of chances the first couple of rounds, so I didn’t get in a rhythm, and then when I did have chances they just wouldn’t go.

Spieth showed his character with four birdies over his closing seven holes.

“We were very relieved”, Spieth said. “It’s been a challenge walking, as I said earlier in the week, and I’m not 100 per cent, so I’m taking that decision to skip Qatar, even though it’s a little sad”.