There must be something in the Dubai desert that favours Spain’s top pros. Seve Ballesteros, José María Olazábal, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Álvaro Quirós and Rafael Cabrera Bello are all past champions of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, and now Sergio García has become the sixth Spanish winner.
It was the 37-year-old’s 12th European Tour title and he completed it in dominant fashion, winning wire-to-wire after setting the tone with an opening 65 at Emirates Golf Club and finishing with a bogey-free 69 for a 19-under total and three-stroke victory over second-placed Henrik Stenson.
García was making his 250th European Tour appearance, but had not won since the 2014 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. "I'm very happy to play the way I played, " he said. "The way I handled some of the key moments and to beat Henrik, we all now how great a player he is.
"The eighth was very, very big because it was the worst drive I hit all week, unfortunately, but it was a massive save and then I birdied nine which was great. The 16th was important but I think 15 was more important. He was coming after two birdies and I hit a really, really good shot. To be able to hit it to a couple of feet and get four clear was massive.
"Even on the 18th with a four-shot lead I knew that I needed to hit a good third shot because you can mess it up a little bit there if you're not careful. Henrik is always there so you've got to stay calm and collected with him.
“It's a great start to the year so we're going to try to keep going the same way.”
Rising Again in Phoenix
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, compatriot Jon Rahm followed up his debut PGA Tour win the week before with a solid 16th place in his “home tournament” Phoenix Open (the 22-year-old studied at Arizona University), seven shots behind the winner, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama
The Japanese’s successful title defence returned him to top spot in the FedExCup rankings, overtaking early-season rival Justin Thomas, and he now has five wins in his last nine worldwide starts. No other player born in Japan has matched his four PGA Tour titles.
Matsuyama has often humbly rejected claims he is the best ever player to come out of Japan, giving kudos instead to the likes of Jumbo Ozaki, Shigeki Maruyama and Isao Aoki. Maruyama held the Japanese-born record of three PGA Tour wins before Matsuyama’s run. Ozaki had an incredible 94 Japan Golf Tour wins and three top-10s in majors but failed to win on the PGA Tour.
As the Tour noted after his latest victory, “Matsuyama continues to appear destined to trump them all, particularly as he trends towards being the first major winner from his country.”
