Abu Dhabi Ad Absurdum

I awoke this morning just in time to catch the conclusion of the desert moneygrab Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, yet further proof of the lonely lives of golf bloggers.  The tournament was won by Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal, who shot a 5-under 67 to beat Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson by a shot.  Can anyone think of an instance where Rory might have cost himself the two shots that made the difference between the thrill of victory and the heartbreak of psoriasis defeat?

Pablo Larrazabal being awarded the trophy in Abu Dhabi earlier today.  I'm going to take a wild guess that Larrazabal is the one in the middle, but like you I couldn't pick him out of a police lineup.

As further clarification to the above-linked post, I had rhetorically asked the whereabouts of the caddies.  J.P. Fitzgerald, Rory's longtime looper, remains MIA in the account, but it turns out that it was Dave Renwick, caddy to playing partner Ricardo Gonzalez, who alerted Tour officials and Rory to the potential violation.  Now I'm not one to blame the caddy, as it's in all instances the player's responsibility, and of course there's always a Tour rules official on call as needed.  But it seems that Fitzgerald has been with young Rory for a sufficient number of rules infractions (in fact, this isn't even the first time Rory has incurred a needless penalty at Abu Dhabi), not to mention late meltdowns (see Masters, 2011), to legitimately question whether he's the right man for the job.

In yesterday's post, I took pains to not hammer the young man too hard in the conclusion.  However, the Belfast Telegraph alerted me to the fact that I missed the high-water mark of Rory's petulance:

McIlroy, who said he had "better things to think about" than keeping up to date with the rules 

Well, alrighty then....perhaps some enterprising golf scribe could follow up after the fact to see if there's any movement in his priorities.

In other Abu Dhabi hijinks, Phil the Thrill sabotaged his chances with a triple bogey 7 at the Par 4 13th, two strokes of which were technically hit right-handed. This ill-fated right-handed stab is, of course, reminiscent of his pratfall on the fourth hole at Augusta in 2012, also leading to a triple.

While it's impossible to opine knowledgeably as to whether either attempt was ill-considered without knowing what his options for a drop were, this does seem to happen to him more than most.  And the irony, of course, is that Phil is naturally right-handed.  He's been known to play with no drivers or two, up to five wedges and God knows what other strange bag configurations...perhaps he should throw in a right-handed wedge?