Rickie Fowler holds off Rory McIlroy to win Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship

A run of eight straight pars allowed the chasing pack, led initially by playing partner Pieters, to get within a shot again, with Stenson then carding three birdies in the last four holes and McIlroy playing his last seven in five under, including an eagle from 35 feet on the last.

“It was not how it was planned”, a smiling Fowler said of the tight finish, “but came out on top”.

After completing a flawless 65 in the delayed third round on Sunday morning, Fowler carded a closing 69 to finish a shot ahead of Belgium’s Thomas Pieters, with Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson a shot further back in third.

The victory follows Fowler’s triumph at last season’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open and makes him just the second American to win the Abu Dhabi event after Chris DiMarco, who claimed the inaugural title in 2006.

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

But the PGA Tour has upped the ante with Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day and now Rickie Fowler.

Jordan Spieth, displaying the tenacity so evident during a stunning 2015, raced through the field to the brief position of tied-fourth.

“I’d like to jump in and be a part of that crew and see if we can continue to win some Majors if I can jump in there”, he said. ‘Right now I’m a sneaky fourth, but I need a major to join the other three’.

Rory McIlroy: “I gave myself a lot of work to do going into the last 18 holes and I just didn’t quite have it today”.

LA QUINTA, Calif. – Jason Dufner won the CareerBuilder Challenge with a par on the second hole of a playoff, taking advantage of David Lingmerth’s shot off the rocks that bounced into the water.

Dufner finished with an 8-under 64 to reach 23-under 193 with one round left at PGA West’s TPC Stadium Course.

Duffy Waldorf made a 30-foot birdie putt on the final hole to beat Tom Lehman by a stroke Saturday night in the Champions’ season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship. “It would be a pretty good foursome”, Fowler, 27, said. While world No 1 Spieth and third-ranked McIlroy could only produce the occasional burst over the remaining 54 holes, the man who paced himself and showed staying power on his second visit to the United Arab Emirates was Fowler.

“It’s a good time in the schedule with a strength of field that’s not matched this time of year anywhere else”, he added. Sometimes you’d rather have a longer putt that you really feel good about the break.

“I wasted a lot of opportunities out there this week, so it really is a story of what could have been”.

He needed two moments of inspiration in the final round to seal a one-shot win – and spark more talk about Fowler’s place in golf’s current elite. Previous year he was tied 66th. “I like keeping it going, which is exciting. This year looks like it’s getting off to a great continuation from the top five to 10 in the world point of view but I think it’s still early”. I’m excited for rest.

The performance also moved Hadwin closer to a spot on the Canadian Olympic team for this summer’s Games.