[caption id="attachment_69472" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Rory McIlroy was runner-up to Robert Rock in Abu Dhabi."]
The 2012 season can officially be decreed as having begun and, if the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship is any indication, the ride could be spectacular. Rory McIlroy, playing in his first tournament of the year, took second place, one stroke behind medalist Robert Rock. Graeme McDowell was another stroke in back of McIlroy as part of a trio that included Tiger Woods and Thomas Bjorn.
McIlroy began the final round two strokes off the leading pair of Rock and Woods. He closed to within a stroke late in his second round, but could not get some birdie putts to drop. His tournament turned on the front nine on Friday, when he recorded a pair of double-bogey 6s, one of which resulted from a 2-stroke penalty he incurred for tampering with sand on the line of his ball, while on the fringe. Otherwise, he appeared to be in mid-season form, limiting his bogeys on the weekend to one per day.
His 72-hole total of 276 (67-72-68-69) left him one stroke behind Rock’s 275.
“It’s a good start to the year,” McIlroy said after Sunday’s round. “It’s nice to go out there in the final round of the first tournament you play with a chance to win.”
As for the 2-stroke penalty, will he dwell on how that cost him the championship?
“Actually, not at all,” McIlroy said. “It’s one of those things, it happens, and I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.”
McIlroy will now take a week off in anticipation of the following week’s event in Dubai. He will remain in the Middle East to work on his game as he prepares to capture an event he won there in 2009. And what aspects might be most in need of attention?
“A little bit of posture, trying to get the club in the right position on the way back,” McIlroy said.
McDowell put together three solid rounds of 69, 68 and 68 after a shaky beginning that yielded even-par 72 on Thursday. Sunday’s final round featured a hole-in-one on the 186-yard 12th hole, and he got birdie at 18 when his approach shot kicked off the grandstand onto the green for a very makeable putt.
“Holed my tee shot on 12 with a 7-iron there and that kick-started a nice day, really,” McDowell said.
“Chip-in from the fringe on 13. A few missed opportunities and then the worst lay-up in the history of lay-ups on the last there, followed by a thinned gap wedge, which ricocheted off the grandstand to six feet and just a regulation birdie.”
The ace?
“A front right pin and I cut a little 7-iron there and it pitched right in the front fringe and just trickled up there and disappeared,” McDowell said. “I think it’s my ninth hole-in-one in my golfing life and they are all pretty sweet.”
Gareth Maybin, who was life and death to hold onto his European Tour card at the end of last season, appeared chastened by the experience and was in contention through 36 holes until receding a bit and finishing the event joint-14th at 281 (68-70-72-71).
Maybin was the only player to have gotten through the initial 36 holes without a bogey. He made an early move, clipping four strokes off par through the first six holes on Thursday, and was six under at the midway point. Although he mustered four bogeys on the weekend, he was hurt more by an inability to convert birdie opportunities, as he had only five of those during the same period.
Padraig Harrington, on the other hand, had more birdies (14) than did Maybin, but also far more bogeys (11). At one point, Harrington strung together five straight birdies (18 on Thursday and the first four holes on Friday), but otherwise never got anything going. He tied for 35th place at 285 (71-69-72-73).
Michael Hoey just did clear the cut line after rounds of 70 and 76. Three double bogeys on the front nine over the course of the tournament worked to his detriment, although he did offer some nice play on the weekend, when he shot 69 and 72. The latter score could have been better if not for two late bogeys.
The cut was set at 146. That excised Damien McGrane, 149 (73-76), Peter Lawrie, 150 (78-72), Shane Lowry, 150 (73-77), and Darren Clarke, 153 (72-81). That second round of Clarke’s featured six bogeys and two doubles, offset by a single birdie.
