New Abu Dhabi HSBC champion, Gary Stal broke down in tears and dedicating his maiden European Tour victory to his late mother, Christine.
Stal, 22 shocked the golf world in coming from eight shots behind overnight leader, Martin Kaymer, and with by a stroke with a final round 65 for a 19-under par victory tally in the UAE capital.
The Lyon-born golfer’s prior best finish in the European Tour was fifth and that was last week in the South African Open.
Frenchman Gary Stal captures the 2015 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
However the current World No. 357th ranked player, who now seems likely to break into the top-100, is Euro 379,798 richer thanks to victory on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the event.
But there was a very emotional moment when Stal broke down in tears on the 18th green before afterwards asked to explain his reaction.
Stal had earlier singled out his parents as instrumental in his golf career but it was his mother, who passed away while he was contesting last year’s BMW PGA Championship, who he immediately thought of after holing out for victory.
“My dad and my mother, they made a good thing for me to be a good golfer, and I just apprecitate my -sport every day because of them,” he said.
“Then when the last putt dropped I thought about all the people that were looking at me. I thought about my mother that died in May while I was playing Wentworth. She passed away while I was playing, and I thought about her a lot, obviously (wiping tears from his eyes).
Stal is the second first-time winner this new season after England’s Andy Sullivan captured last week’s South African Open.
The Frenchman, who cites Tiger Woods as his idol when starting out in golf but he now draws inspiration in watching Rory McIlroy, is also the youngest winner of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
He also is the second youngest French-born winner in Tour history, aged 22 years and 343 days, and with the youngest being Jose-Filipe Lima who captured the 2004 Saint Omer Open when aged 22 years and 206 days.
And Stal joins American Chris DiMarco (2006) and Kaymer (2008) in making the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship his first European Tour victory.
