Gary Stal overturned an eight shot deficit to deny Martin Kaymer and claim a maiden European Tour title at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship gaining 50 World Ranking points moving to World No. 103.
Jimmy Walker made up for his Kapalua disappointment by defending his Sony Open title in Hawaii in record fashion to win by nine strokes and moving to World No. 13.
European Tour – Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship
Gary Stal overturned an eight shot deficit to deny Martin Kaymer and claim a maiden European Tour title at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship moving up the World Ranking 254 spots.
The two-time Challenge Tour winner closed with a brilliant seven under par 65 for a 19 under total, which proved just enough on an exhilarating final day.
“It's really crazy and I’m very happy to win this tournament,” said Stal, whose final-day comeback equalled the largest on the 2014 Race to Dubai.
“This morning, I was thinking about second place, I didn't think about first place.”
Three-time winner Kaymer had carried a six shot lead going into Sunday's final round, and at one stage extended his advantage to ten shots after birdies at three of his first four holes.
Frenchman Stal started the day eight behind, but went to the turn in 32 and birdied the tenth just as two-time Major Champion Kaymer was beginning to falter.
The German double bogeyed the ninth after finding the desert scrub, and after Stal picked up another shot from 15 feet at the 11th the gap was down to two.
Kaymer found more trouble in desert down the left of the 13th, and ran up a triple bogey seven after duffing a pitch from the fairway to slip one behind.
Stal then holed from 20 feet at the 16th for birdie, and neither Kaymer nor World Number One Rory McIlroy could stop the 22 year old over the closing holes.
McIlroy almost holed from the sand at the last to force a play-off, but the four-time Major winner instead had to settle for a fourth runner-up finish in the event on 18 under, with Kaymer a shot further back in third following a round of 75.
PGA Tour – Sony Open in Hawaii
Jimmy Walker made up for his Kapalua disappointment by defending his Sony Open title in Hawaii in record fashion.
Walker felt he threw away victory in the Hyundai Tournament of Champions last weekend, but he made no mistake on Sunday in Oahu as he strolled away from the field to win by nine strokes with a finishing total of 23-under 257.
The Ryder Cup rookie, who was winning his fourth tournament, shot 62-63 at the weekend and became the first repeat winner at the Sony Open since Ernie Els in 2004.
Such a wide margin of victory seemed unlikely when Walker and Matt Kuchar went through the first seven holes with matching pars, but the complexion changed at the eighth.
Walker stuffed his approach to three feet for birdie, while Kuchar pulled his tee shot into the royal palms, punched out short of the green and made bogey - that two-shot swing gave Walker a four-shot lead, and he was on his way.
He would go on to make six more birdies in the last 10 holes and Kuchar could only manage 10 pars in a one-over par round of 71 that dropped him into a tie for third and ended a streak of 255 rounds including at least one birdie.
"I really wanted to finish out the day today, which I didn't do last week," Walker said. "I kept grinding and making putts and that's what I did today.
"It's quite a bit different (to last week). I really wanted to try to finish out the day today like I kind of didn't do last week and it was really fun."