Pieters Masters Bound After After Abu Dhabi HSBC Success

4 years ago by Comments Off on Pieters Masters Bound After After Abu Dhabi HSBC Success

……..  Fatiha Betscher, Dubai

New Abu Dhabi HSBC champion Thomas Pieters is Masters bound after his triumph at Yas Links.

The Belgian golfer jumped 38 spots to be the new World No. 31 that should assure a return drive down Magnolia Lane in Augusta National for the first time in four years and remembering he finished T4th on his Masters debut a year earlier.

It is Pieters’s highest place on the World Rankings since was last ranked 31st in the world near the later stages of the 2017 season.

Pieters, who turns 30 this Thursday, collected a stunning sixth DP World Tour win thanks t a one-shot victory at the Yas Links course in the UAE capital

The win was easily the biggest of his pro career following double success at the Czech Masters (2015 & 2019) along with a KLM Open win in 2015, his Made in Denmark triumph in 2016 and last year’s Portugal Masters win.

And the quitely-spoken Antwerp golfer spoke what it means to get himself back into the world’s top-50.

It’s always been kind of like chasing this and chasing that, and obviously want to play in America a bit and Europe and combine it.

But this kind of solidifies me in the Top-50 and I can just make a good plan for the rest of the year and set myself up for hopefully another win.

Pieters’s highest world ranking was 24th in finishing T14th at the 2017 BMW PGA Championship but it had been a slow slide down the rankings since then falling outside the top-100 in missing the cut at the 2019 Irish Open.  He got back to 84th in the capturing the 2019 Czech Masters.

However, he was unable to capture that winning form arriving at the 2021 Andalucia Masters as 126th in the world one week before winning the Portugal Masters that helped end his year 72nd in the world.

Now Pieters is now back and well inside the elite top-50 at 31st and with just five male Belgium-born players inside the world’s top-700, he’s hoping his win can lead to more of Belgium’s getting into golf

“My win will be massive for golf back home”, he said.

“Just before I came out to Abu Dhabi, I was practising with some kids back home, and for them to see that they can beat me in chipping competitions back home and I come out here and I win, it’s important for them to see me and actually play against me. I try to do that a lot when I’m back home and hopefully it gives them some motivation”.

Well said Thomas and well done!



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