Early season positives for Harrington, McKibbin, Purcell and Mehaffey
Daniel Gavins of England poses with the Ras Al Khaimah Championship trophy. Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images
Pádraig Harrington could look on the bright side after he fired four sub-par rounds to tie for 25th in the Ras Al Khaimah Championship.
The Dubliner (51) was seventh for strokes gained with the putter as he closed with a one-under 71 to finish nine shots behind England's Daniel Gavins on eight-under.
While he made six birdies, he was left to rue bad tee shots that led to costly, back-to-back double-bogey sixes at the ninth and 10th.
Gavins (31) holed a 30-footer for a triple bogey seven at the 18th for a 69, a one-shot win over Alexander Bjork and Zander Lombard and his second DP World Tour title.
He held a two-shot lead playing the last, but while he found the water twice, Björk finished with a bogey up ahead and third-round leader Lombard missed a 24-foot eagle putt at the 18th to force a playoff.
Holywood rookie Tom McKibbin topped the charts for strokes gained off the tee, but he bogeyed four of his last six holes in a closing 74 to finish 36th on six-under.
Meanwhile, Portmarnock's Conor Purcell is looking forward to this week's Dimension Data Pro-Am after opening his Challenge Tour season with a tie for seventh (€5,936) in the Bain's Whisky Cape Town Open.
The former Walker Cup star (25) went into the final round tied for sixth, three shots off the lead and mixed six birdies with four bogeys in a final round 70 at Royal Cape to finish three shots behind Zimbabwe's Benjamin Follett-Smith on 12-under.
"I'm very happy with the week," said Purcell, who made 22 birdies over the four days with 13 of them coming on par-fives. "I made plenty of birdies which was great and just the odd poor shot costing the mistakes, so lots of positives to build on."
Follett-Smith closed with a 70 to win by a shot from Ugo Coussaud and Jaco van Zyl on 15 under par as Rosapenna's Ruaidhri McGee tied for 72nd after an 80.
In the Asian Tour's PIF Saudi International, Mexico's Abraham Ancer went wire to wire at Royal Greens Golf & Country Club, where he closed with a two-under 68 to win by two strokes from Cameron Young on 19-under par with Graeme McDowell tied 25th on seven-under after a 66.
On the Ladies European Tour, Olivia Mehaffey picked up her first cheque since last May when she tied for 48th in the Magical Kenya Ladies Open.
She had not played since taking time off to address her mental struggles last August but recovered from an opening 80 to make the cut and close with a four-over 77 to finish on 15-over par at Vipingo Ridge.
India's Aditi Ashok closed with a 74 to complete a wire-to-wire win by nine strokes from Alice Hewson and April Angurasaranee on 12-under.
