Dubai: Despite failing to defend his 2011 Omega Dubai Desert Classic title, Spain's Alvaro Quiros was upbeat for the positives from his final round at the Majlis Course yesterday.
Ending five under-par 283 (70,70,71,72), the 28-year-old Spaniard, book-ended last season with an opening win at last year's Classic and closed with honours at the Dubai World Championship. But he couldn't top it off this year with a unique Dubai hat-trick of three wins in the last three appearances in the emirate.
Slipping to three-over in his first four holes on round one, Quiros was already on the back foot, but he recovered with five birdies to two under. His second round saw two bogeys cancel out two birdies, but an eagle on 18 restored the round to two under, four under overall.
On day three, three birdies and two bogeys left him at one under for the day, five under overall. Round four started with five bogeys, four of which were consecutive, before restoring par with five birdies starting from the ninth.
Improvement
Quiros said: "It was bad. Obviously it wasn't a great tournament for me but at the same time there are a lot of positives after four rounds. I will take note and try to improve, ready for the next tournament.
"My putting was a lot truer toward the end. I was hitting the ball better and I had a very good attitude on the course to come back from where I did on the last round. So that's good.
"It was more difficult today than the previous three rounds. The wind became stronger and that makes it difficult to control. I managed with this situation because it's something we have to put up with every day of our lives. The wind is nothing new.
"Overall, I haven't been hitting the ball great. I've been playing very average and putting poor. But that's why I'm very happy with my last round because I've been discovering new things and good tips to improve both sides of my game and it got better as time went on," he said.
Quiros added: "I'm not too disappointed to have failed in the defence of my title. It was over one year ago and today has nothing in relation to what happened one year ago. It's a completely different week with different players and it's very difficult to win back-to-back."
