Story highlights
Tiger Woods reflects on his challenge at the recent Abu Dhabi Golf Championship
Woods striking the ball "beautifully" but was surprised by his length on ocassions
Impressed by steady round of playing partner and eventual winner Robert Rock
Kyle Stanley moved to tears after blowing chances to bag maiden PGA Tour victory
“I was right there with a chance and just didn’t get it done today,” Tiger Woods conceded after finishing tied for third place at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship on Sunday.
Woods said that his ball-striking was beautiful all week but expressed surprise at how far the ball was traveling for him on Sunday.
“I hit a couple of three-woods 320 (yards). That’s something I don’t normally do, so I’ve got to figure out why the ball was going further than it should today,” Woods told CNN’s Shane O’Donoghue.
“I hit a couple of eight irons a buck-eighty (180 yards). I’ve got to figure that out…because even with the adrenaline the ball was going further.”
Woods was impressed how his playing partner and eventual winner, Robert Rock handled himself on the final day.
“He played solid,” Woods said.
“He made one or two mistakes here and there but hit a couple of beautiful iron shots on the back nine and made a couple of key putts to extend the lead and that’s something he never gave up,” he added.
After completing his second tour victory the Englishman admitted that he was “very very nervous and very excited” to play with Woods.
“I didn’t know how I would cope early on but I hit a decent drive down the first, so that kind of settled me into it a little bit,” Rock said.
“I got a couple of birdies in early on, so did Tiger, and then it became a bit of fun and I wasn’t quite as nervous,” he added.
“I was just concerned all the way round that he, just as you expect him to do, would chip in, hole long putts, do absolutely anything. So I was happy to keep in on the fairways and greens and stay in position. But it was very hard work.”
It was the 34-year-old’s second victory on the European Tour and sees him pocket just over €347,000 ($455,000).
While Rock celebrated a famous win, over on the PGA Tour Kyle Stanley was trying to forget about his dramatic collapse during the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in California.
The 24-year-old held a four-shot lead as he stood on the 18th tee but blew his chances of a maiden win with a triple-bogey eight on the closing par five.
Playing in the group ahead of him, his nearest challenger Brandt Snedeker snatched a birdie four to force a playoff which he went on to win.
“It’s tough. I mean, it’s really tough to take,” a tearful Stanley said, PGATour.com reported.
Snedeker, who beat current world number one Luke Donald in a playoff at The Heritage tournament last year, was gracious in victory.
“If anybody had an advantage, I did, because I had done that a couple times before. Kyle probably wasn’t in his best frame of mind at that point after doing what he did on 18,” Snedeker said, PGATour.com reported
