Lee Westwood wins Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, claims titles in four decades

46-year-old Lee Westwood rolled back the years to take the victory at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA.

The first Rolex Series event brought some of the biggest golfers on the world stage to Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, but it was Lee Westwood who got the better of all of them, finishing the tournament two shots clear at -19.

With the win, the Englishman moves into an elite club of one as the only man to have won on the European Tour in four consecutive decades. He won nine times in the 1990s, before taking 11 victories in the 2000s, including five of those coming in a five month spell in 2000.

Westwood won four times in the 2010s, including the Nedbank Golf Challenge in 2018, before winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship this week, making it four straight decades with a win on the European Tour, as well as being his second Rolex Series win, and this was how he did it.

He took his 25th European Tour victory by two shots, with two fellow Englishman finishing in a tie for 2nd at -17, alongside France’s Victor Perez, who carded a 63 to move up the leaderboard.

Tommy Fleetwood followed the Frenchman with a 63 of his own on Sunday, while Matthew Fitzpatrick birdied the last to join the pair in that tie for 2nd.

Perez came home with two birdies and an eagle in his last four holes to secure one of the best finishes of his career, while Fleetwood and Fitzpatrick went bogey-free across their final rounds.

South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Shaun Norris finished inside the top ten, and had it not been for a 77 on Friday for the latter, he may well have been in the hunt for a first European Tour title.

England Ross Fisher, two-time Rolex Series winner Bernd Wiesberger, Scotland’s Scott Jamieson, Spaniard Sergio Garcia and three-time Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship winner Martin Kaymer made up the remainder of the top ten come the end of play on Sunday afternoon.

Erik van Rooyen was among those in a tie for 12th at -12, with Rafa Cabrera Bello and Jack Singh Brar, the Englishman that holed a putt on the 72nd at the Portugal Masters to retain his Tour card, alongside the South African.

Last week’s victor, Branden Grace, will relinquish the top spot on the Race to Dubai leaderboard, but he recovered from a poor second round to finish inside the top 20 in Abu Dhabi.

The likes of Andy Sullivan, Gavin Green and Thomas Pieters all finished inside the top 30, as did Chinese amateur Yuxin Lin, whose first taste of European Tour action could not have gone much better.

The American trio of Kurt Kitayama, Patrick Cantlay and World No.1 Brooks Koepka ended the week finished the week at -8, while Matt Wallace and Thomas Bjørn both ended their weeks outside the top 60.

Back at the top, though, and it is Lee Westwood that takes home the spoils from the first Rolex Series event of the new season, and the Englishman will fly straight to the top of the Race to Dubai leaderboard, and he also puts himself in a prime position on the Ryder Cup list ahead of this September’s battle at Whistling Straits.

The European Tour continues its Middle Eastern tilt next week at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates GC, just a couple of hours up the road from this week’s venue. Bryson DeChambeau is the defending champion, with the likes of Rory McIlroy, Matt Wallace and Sergio Garcia having won the trophy in recent years. The action starts on Thursday morning.

Leaderboard:

1 (-19): Lee Westwood (ENG)

T2 (-17): Victor Perez (FRA), Tommy Fleetwood (ENG), Matthew Fitzpatrick (ENG)

5 (-15): Louis Oosthuizen (RSA)

T6 (-14): Shaun Norris (RSA), Ross Fisher (ENG)

Selected Others:

T8 (-13): Sergio Garcia (ESP), Bernd Wiesberger (AUT), Martin Kaymer (GER)

T12 (-12): Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP), Jack Singh Brar (ENG), Erik van Rooyen (RSA)

T17 (-11): Branden Grace (RSA), Francesco Laporta (ITA)

T21 (-10): Gavin Green (MAS), Andy Sullivan (ENG), Renato Paratore (ITA)

T30 (-9): Yuxin Lin (A, CHN), Thomas Pieters (BEL)

T34 (-8): Brooks Koepka (USA), Patrick Cantlay (USA), Kurt Kitayama (USA), Zander Lombard (RSA)

T42 (-6): Nicolas Colsaerts (BEL), Joost Luiten (NED)

64 (-2): Matt Wallace (ENG)

65 (-1): Thomas Bjørn (DEN)