Abu Dhabi: England’s Tommy Fleetwood, after defending his Abu Dhabi Golf Championship crown, revealed that the three wishes that four-time major winner Rory McIlroy asked him to yearn for after blowing the candles on his birthday cake on Friday has been ‘wisely’ saved for bigger goals ahead this year.

“No, it (this trophy) wasn’t, actually. I thought I’d use my wishes more wisely and try and take care of the title myself this week,” said Fleetwood, who was clearly in a class of his own especially in the back nine where he carded six birdies to seal the victory by two shots.

“From the start of the week, any time you come to a tournament, you always want to be there on a Sunday. You sort of arrive on a Monday or a Tuesday and come Sunday afternoon on the back nine, you want to be in with a chance of winning. Doesn’t matter what tournament it is.

“This happens to be a very big one. It felt like a special one to me this week, being defending champion. Yeah, to have it for another year to have that, sort of on the mantelpiece at home again is just really, really brilliant,” said a delighted Fleetwood, who also bagged the ‘Players Player of the Year’ award just before the tournament for his stunning performance last year where he finished as World No. 18 after starting ranked 100.

“Yeah, sort of the biggest thing for us after last year, I had had the year of my life by a long, long way on the course. And everything we’ve done, everything we’ve talked about, sort of that month off was to make sure that we kept progressing, kept improving,” said Fleetwood, who with this effort, is also back at the top of The Race to Dubai having bagged the purse of €408,597.

For Fleetwood’s compatriot Ross Fisher, to finish second after starting the final round on a high with an eagle, would have been a hard pill to swallow but he said he knew it was going to be a ‘tricky day.’

“Obviously, you’re going to face a very tough day. The wind was blowing. Greens were getting firmer and faster.

“Unfortunately, hit a poor tee shot on 10 but managed to salvage a great six in the end holing a 20-, 25-footer there, and then yeah, felt like I was hitting good shots but it was just very tricky to get close to the pins. The wind was strong. It was gusty, it was left-to-right, it was helping, it was into. It was tricky, and then obviously 15 was disappointing,” said Fisher, who for his effort was richer by €272,395.

McIlroy, who finished joint third, having not teed off since the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship last October, has also sent in a strong warning that he has not lost his sheen a wee bit.

“I’m really happy with how I played. It could have been a little bit better today. I was a little bit scrappy but the conditions sort of, I felt like shooting anything in the 60s would have been a good score. I didn’t quite do that; I shot 70.

“Overall, I’m really happy how I played this week. My game is in really good shape and I saw some really, really positive signs. So I’m looking forward to next week in Dubai and obviously to the rest of the season.”