SUNDAY FEBRUARY 5, 2017 - OMEGA DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC
SERGIO GARCIA
• His 12th European Tour victory in his 250th European Tour event
• Moves to third in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex with 410,224 points
• Could move as high as ninth in the Official Golf World Ranking from 15th.
• His first European Tour victory since the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters on 25th January 2014
• Just his second European Tour win in six years, dating back to the 2011 Andalucía Masters
• His 40th event played since his last victory in 2014
• His seventh top ten finish in nine European Tour starts, dating back to April last year.
• He had finished in the top ten 12 times since his last victory, including two runner up finishes (2014 Open Championship and 2014 WGC Bridgestone Invitational).
• Becomes the sixth Spaniard to win this title after Seve Ballesteros (1992), José María Olazábal (1998), Miguel Ángel Jiménez (2010), Alvaro Quiros (2011) and Rafa Cabrera Bello (2012)
• The 23rd different winner of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in 28 stagings
• The third straight Omega Dubai Desert Classic winner ranked inside the top 15 in the Official Golf World Ranking, after Danny Willett and Rory McIlroy.
• The eighth time he has played in this event and his first top-ten finish
• Beats his previous best finish at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic of T11th in 2009
• His first victory in Dubai, meaning his 12 European Tour wins have come in eight different countries.
OTHER FACTS
• The first Spanish winner on the European Tour since Pablo Larrazábal at the 2015 BMW International Open
• At 37 years 27 days, he becomes the third youngest Spaniard to win 12 European Tour titles behind Ballesteros and Olazabal.
• Ties Ian Poulter at 23rd in the all-time European Tour win list with 12 titles, the fourth highest Spaniard behind Ballesteros, Olazábal and Jiménez.
• His 30th victory worldwide
• The 174th Spanish victory on The European Tour
• Gains a European Tour exemption until the end of 2019
