Thomas Pieters earns biggest career victory at Abu Dhabi Championship

On a weekend where complaining golfers were hardly difficult to come by, Thomas Pieters delivered a timely redemption tale. Tyrrell Hatton made his feelings regarding this venue, Yas Links, perfectly clear. On the PGA Tour, Jon Rahm was filmed lambasting a “piece of shit setup” in California. Enter Pieters, who expressed glee at returning to the forefront of his sport after a period in the wilderness.

Four days short of his 30th birthday, Pieters reminded us of the form that once took him into the world’s top 50, a tie for fourth at the Masters and into Europe’s 2016 Ryder Cup team with a one-stroke victory at the Abu Dhabi Championship. A fourth round of 72 saw Pieters claim the biggest victory of his career, at 10 under par, from Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Shubhankar Sharma.

“I disappeared for a couple of years, I guess,” said Pieters. “I’m so happy to be back. As a golfer, top 50 in the world is your strive point and when I jumped out maybe three years ago, I took it badly. I’m happy to be back again.”

Pieters needed a par five at the last to prevail and recorded one with relative ease. “Stuff like this inspires kids,” said the big-hitting Belgian. “Hopefully I can do that back home.”

Hatton doubled down on fierce criticism of the 18th hole here from Saturday, when he took nine at the par five. Asked what he thought when walking onto the same tee on day four, the defending champion replied: “That I would love for a bomb to drop on it and blow it up to oblivion to be honest. It’s just such a terrible finishing hole.

“And the fact that they moved the tee back today is ridiculous. I hit a really good tee shot and still had 290 yards to the front [of the green]. I could pick driver up again and still not get there. It would