{"id":7491,"date":"2012-01-29T21:17:23","date_gmt":"2012-01-29T19:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/01\/update-2-golf-rock-is-abu-dhabi-champion-after-woods-fades\/"},"modified":"2012-01-29T21:17:23","modified_gmt":"2012-01-29T19:17:23","slug":"update-2-golf-rock-is-abu-dhabi-champion-after-woods-fades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-2-golf-rock-is-abu-dhabi-champion-after-woods-fades\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 2-Golf-Rock is Abu Dhabi champion after Woods fades"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

* Briton hails special victory<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

* Woods finishes joint third<\/p>\n

(Adds details)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

ABU DHABI<\/span> Jan 29 (Reuters) – Britain’s Robert Rock
\nwon his head-to-head duel with a ragged Tiger Woods to lift the
\nAbu Dhabi Championship title on Sunday after the former world
\nnumber one produced his worst performance of the week.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The two players started the day in a tie for the lead and it
\nwas the little-known Rock who held his nerve on the final day to
\ncollect a second European Tour victory with a closing 70 for
\n275, 13 under.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Woods’s sustained excellence over the first three days at
\nthe demanding Abu Dhabi Golf Club indicated the 14-times major
\nchampion was back to his best but his game unravelled on Sunday
\nas he faded to a 72 for 277.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

World number three Rory McIlroy (69) finished second on 276
\nwhile Woods had to settle for a share of third spot with former
\nU.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell (68), who had a hole-in-one
\nat the 12th, and Dane Thomas Bjorn (68).<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The bearded Rock, who started the week 117th in the
\nrankings, was almost overcome with emotion after landing the
\nFalcon Trophy and the first prize of 347,024 euros ($455,700).<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I really can’t believe I did that today,” said the
\n34-year-old Englishman after another hot day in the desert. “It
\nis such an amazing feeling.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I was just happy to be playing alongside Tiger, that was a
\nspecial honour in itself. Early on I played really well and I
\nsurprised myself.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

* Briton hails special victory * Woods finishes joint third (Adds details) ABU DHABI Jan 29 (Reuters) – Britain’s Robert Rock won his head-to-head duel with a ragged Tiger Woods to lift the Abu Dhabi Championship title on Sunday after the former world number one produced his worst performance of the week. The two players […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-7491","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7491\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}