It speaks volumes for Scott Jamieson’s demeanor after the brave face he wore following the disappointment of letting slip victory in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Jamieson led for three rounds only to bogey three of his opening four holes on route to a gut-wrenching 77 for a six-under total and a distant share of 10th place at six-under-par on the Yas Links course.
His final day playing partner Thomas Pieters emerged for many last round car wrecks to par the last in a 71 and win by a shot at 10–under-par on a windswept and noisy as Yas Links as Formula 3000 race was taking place over the road at the Yas Marina circuit.
Scott Jamieson on the final day of the 2022 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship (Photo – Dave Cannon/Getty)
While around half-a-dozen TV cameras followed Pieters from the final green and on his way to the scorer’s hut, Jamieson following the throng and not for a moment showing any sign of frustration. He emerged from the scorer’s to carefuly find his way through the waiting TV and writtn media. There was no need to ask people to move as Jamieson understood the fuss, except all the fuss was not about him.
His finish did earn him a £180,000 payout and has jumped 53 spots to 283rd on the rankings but they were of no interest to the Glaswegian and who had been introduced on the first tee some four-and-a-half hours earler as winning his first and only win in 2012.
And when Jamison spoke to this writer, and the only journalist who approached the Scot at the close of his round, he did not complain nor did he rubbish any aspect any aspect as the event’s defending champion did.
No, that’s not Jamieson and it has never been Jamieson.
He said: “I had three great days when I was hardly out of position at all and then from the first hole today, I find myself out of position after what I thought was a good second shot that flew the green.
“It was not an easy day as the pins were tough so I don’t think I had too many bad shots.
“I felt good this morning arriving at the course and looking forward, of course, for the right outcome but just hit it in too many bad positions.
“The misses on four and five were unacceptable”.
Jamieson had proudly led from day one with a new course record 63 and battled Friday’s brutal near 30 mph wind blast.
He then birdied the final hole on “moving day’ only to see the title slip away.
Jamieson teeing up not having played under such pressure for a long time and I guess all those misses showed up today.
“I was in a great to be in that position to have a chance to win. I was proud of my play on Saturday as I was leading at the start of the day and played 18 great holes to be leading at the end of the day
“I’ll head down to Dubai tonight and I’m not one to be kicking the hotel room door in when I get to my room. No, that’s not me. I’ll move on and take the good three-day form into this week’s Desert Classic.
“Everyone has learned so much about this new course this week and knowing we are going to be here for a further three years is good news”.
Richie Ramsay was the next best of the original 11 Scots in the Abu Dhabi field posting a last round 70 to share 25th place at three-under
He said: “It was good week in my first event of the year. Had a good run of birdies at the turn, and felt I played really good.
“I did three-putted three times and other than that, it was pretty good.
“I injured my back on December 20th while in the gym and was off doing nothing for 10-days, so that came through okay”.
