Top-10 finish for Scott Jamieson as Thomas Pieters wins in Abu Dhabi

Scott Jamieson’s wait for a second career victory continued after the Scot suffered a disappointing last round at Yas Links along with Shane Lowry as victory in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship went to the third member of their group, Thomas Pieters.

Scott Jamieson, left, congratulates Thomas Pieters on his win in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship at Yas Links. Picture: Warren Little/Getty Images.

Helped by a closing 72 that included 16 pars, Pieters created history as the first Belgian to win a Rolex Series event, his 10-under-par 278 total giving him a one-shot victory over Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello (70) and Indian Shubhankar Sharma (71).

“Happy to be back,” said Pieters as he celebrated a sixth title triumph on the DP World Tour, one that is set to lift him into the world’s top 30. He’d made a welcome return to the winner’s circle in the Portugal Masters in November, but this success was his biggest to date.

“Yeah, I kind of disappeared for a couple years, I guess,” he added, having looked as though he’d go on to make his mark at the highest level after an impressive Ryder Cup debut at Hazeltine in 2016.

For Jamieson, his hopes of recording a wire-to-wire win and add to his breakthrough success in the 2012 Nelson Mandela Championship were undone by a poor start to the final circuit.

One ahead of both Pieters and Lowry overnight, the 38-year-old Glaswegian dropped four shots in the first six holes to undo some of his great work over the first three days.

He ended up having to settle for a closing 77, which left him a tie for tenth on six-under alongside former Masters champion Adam Scott (72).

It’s not where Jamieson would have wanted to finish after 54 holes, but he’d certainly have taken in at the start of the week and, having earned just under £115,000, the Florida-based player is off to a promising start in his 12th successive season on the renamed DP World Tour.

On a day when Lowry, the 2019 winner, had the wind taken out of his sails by a triple-bogey 7 at the first, Rory McIlroy signed off with an eagle and five birdies in a 69 that lifted him into the top 15.

“I had to make a birdie at the last on Friday night to be here and almost made most of the weekend,” said the Northern Irishamn. “Played well yesterday. Played really well today through 13.

“I thought for the most part I struck the ball well. Coming into the new season, you have new equipment and there's always a couple little kinks to work out here and there.

“I put a 3-iron in the bag a couple weeks ago and that cost me three shots on the first day. But I thought the driver was good and irons were pretty good for the most part.”

Richie Ramsay signed off with a 70 - his third sub-par round of the week – to finish joint-25th three-under, earning around £53,000 for his week’s work.

In his first outing as a full card holder, while Ewen Ferguson earned around £37,000 for a share of 39th spot on one-under, three better than Connor Syme (69) and seven less than David Law (78).

Elsewhere, Sadom Kaewkanjana, Yuto Katsuragawa, Joohyung Kim and Sihwan Kim secured their places in the 150th Open at St Andrews in July through theSingapore Open.

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