Stephen Gallacher’s spirited title defence fell short on Sunday, but he could still walk away from the golf course a proud man, finishing solo third.

It was his fourth consecutive finish inside the top-three of Dubai Desert Classic, having finished second in 2012 before winning the next two editions.

– Rory McIlroy wins second Dubai Desert Classic trophy

On Sunday, Gallacher got off to a slow start, making one birdie and one bogey on the front nine, but as has been often the case, he caught fire on the back nine.

For the second successive day, the world No34 Scotsman missed a hole-in-one by a whisker, this time on the 11th hole, and then chipped in for a birdie on the next.

Gallacher finished with a 69 for a total of 16-under par 272, and said he paid the price of hitting the ball too“I’m happy with that. Today was probably the best I’ve played all week. I was hitting it so good that it was going through the wind quite a bit and that stopped me from getting it pin high as much as I’d have liked,” said Gallacher.

“I’m delighted to have come here again and put myself in contention again as the defending champion – that’s all you can ask for, really.

“Realistically, we were all playing for second place today as Rory is pretty good from the front and I was way back. I really needed to be just three or four back to give myself a chance of winning it again.”

The day’s best round belonged to Martin Kaymer and 2012 champion Alvaro Quiros. Both shot eight-under par 64s, which catapulted Kaymer to tied fourth place at 273, while the Spaniard enjoyed his best finish in a long time, apart from making a hole-in-one on the fourth hole.

And Kaymer said: “I played very similar to the first three days but made some putts finally which was nice.

“I changed one little thing on Sunday afternoon on the putting green. My hands were a little too far behind the ball so I just put them a little bit more forward. That makes the ball roll easier on the greens and that made the biggest difference.
“It’s really funny how much difference mere centimeters make in our game.

“I really enjoyed my time in the Middle East. I wish we would have a major here. I enjoy playing so much in the Middle East and usually I play well. Therefore, you know, I look forward to coming back in November again when we play the Race to Dubai finale.”