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Maybin makes promising start to 2012 season

Thursday, 2 February 2012

Ballyclare golfer Gareth Maybin picked up €30,000 in prize-money as he finished in 14th place at the HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship. SE0508

BALLYCLARE Golf Club's Gareth Maybin had his first tournament of the New Year at the weekend and was pleased with an excellent finish against a world class field which apart from including the top four golfers in the world also had Tiger Woods back to something akin to his form during the time when he dominated world golf.
Over the four days of the HSBC Abu Dhabi Championship Maybin set a high standard with some excellent scoring and did well to finish in a share of fourteenth place to collect over 30,000 euros in prize money.
Gareth obviously had benefitted from his break from the European Professional Tour spent at home with family and friends in Ballyclare over the holiday period. He had also done a fair amount of physical training and had some practise time in the USA. His last event had been the Hong Kong Open at the start of December where a hole-in-one had helped him to a 39th place and just holding on to his Tour place.
All his friends and supporters in Ballyclare watched his progress over the weekend in the Gulf States at Abu Dhabi against a star-studded field and it was great to see Gareth finishing ahead of world number two Lee Westwood.
From round one on Thursday with everyone following Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy in particular, the name Maybin kept cropping up on the leaderboard. In Thursday's opening round Gareth finished equal second with a fine score of 68 (4 under par) having had four birdies in the front nine and followed his good form on Friday with a 70 (2 under par) having had birdies at the 10th and 12th holes. This kept him at six under par and well in contention as Tiger and Rory began to set a high standard alongside England's Robert Rock.
On Saturday the Ballyclare man and former North of Ireland Amateur Champion managed a level par round of 72 with birdies at seven,16 and 18 but also bogeys at two, nine and 17. On Sunday he kept it steady with a score of one under par (71) having made a superb start with only 34 shots in the front nine with birdies at one, eight and nine.
Even though he had a 37 on the more difficult back nine the final score of a total of 281 kept Gareth on seven under and a share of 14th place. The winner was Robert Rock with one of his best results on tour at 13 under with Rory McIlroy second at 12 under and Graeme McDowell third along with Tiger Woods on 12 under. Again it was a great weekend for Northern Ireland golfers and well done to Gareth Maybin from all at the Ballyclare club-hoping for more good finishes in 2012.

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