Off Script

SHANE LOWRY went wire-towire in the new $7 MILLION ROLEX SERIES event but not before a final round wobble

- Kent Gray

Not much went to script at the 14th Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, not even for eventual champion Shane Lowry. The 36-year-old Irishman didn’t mind, of course, but more on all 1.16 million rollercoaster reasons why soon.

Chasing a third successive Falcon trophy, Tommy Fleetwood predictably dominated the pre-tournament narrative. Sadly for the Southport striper, his defence of the newly minted Rolex Series title amounted to little more than the birdie he binned on Abu Dhabi Golf Club’s 18th green on Thursday evening. It saw the major champion-inwaiting sneak into the weekend on the -3 bubble from where he scrapped to a share of 42nd place on six under.

He at least he made the cut. Arguably Henrik Stenson’s best hit all week was the poker-faced part he played in the Content Committee spoof alongside Fleetwood and Messrs Pepperell, Westwood and Bjorn. Together they helped the European Tour’s crack social media team make a fast start to the new season and look awfully creative once again. If you haven’t caught up with the skit about “Monty’s Pythons”, we urge you to search online for a giggle.

Brooks Koepka, meanwhile, started his week with a tantalising 67 before his blade befell a mysterious cryogenic treatment. Only the world No.2 can make the three successive 70s and top-10 that followed look, well, ho-hum. It’s a nice problem to have, as was his €130,278 pay-out for a share of 9th.

After finishing T-2 and 9th in his previous two visits, Dustin Johnson returned to The National with expectations as lofty as his pal Koepka. But the loose-hipped, tightlipped American rode an equally cold putter to a share of 16th place and left Lowry and a supporting cast of 2014 champion Pablo Larrazábal, Louis Oosthuizen, Ian Poulter and Richard Sterne to enrich the Desert Swing opener’s unexpected plot.