Making an early statement to suggest that his three-win breakout 2014 campaign was not a fluke, Jimmy Walker successfully defended his title at the Sony Open in Hawaii, blowing the field away on the weekend to cruise home to a tournament record nine-shot victory.  Coming off a disappointing final nine loss at the Tournament of Champions in Kapalua last week, Walker opened solidly with weekday rounds of 66-66 at Waialae, yet still stood four off the halfway lead held by Matt Kuchar, Webb Simpson and rookie Justin Thomas.  He then stumbled with a bogey at the par-4 2nd on Saturday before catching fire, reeling off 10 subsequent birdies and one-putting his final 11 greens en route to a 62 that vaulted him all the way atop the leaderboard, two ahead of Kuchar.  Following up so low a number is never easy and Walker indeed started slowly on Sunday, initially parring his first seven holes.  But birdies at the 8th, 9th and 10th got him ignited and thereafter Walker never looked back, roaring home with a bogey-free 63 and the record-setting victory.  Scott Piercy, who closed with a 66, finished solo second, while Kuchar (71), Gary Woodland (67) and Harris English (67) all tied for fourth……………… In one of the more stunning turnarounds in recent golfing history, 22-year-old Frenchman Gary Stal claimed his first career European Tour victory at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship when reigning U.S. Open champion Martin Kaymer stumbled badly on Sunday.  Indeed, Kaymer, one of the game’s more proficient front-runners, seemed on his way not just to winning here for the fourth time but also setting a new tournament scoring record as he stood on the sixth tee with a 10-shot final round lead – but within 90 minutes, everything fell apart.  It started innocuously with a bogey at the 6th (his first in 47 holes) but turned more serious when Kaymer double-bogeyed the 9th after driving wildly into the desert.  Still, he remained reasonably in command until another wayward drive at the 414-yard 13th (combined with a poor approach) led to a staggering triple-bogey, at which point he fell out of the lead and was never able to recover.  Stal, who began the week by birdieing his first five holes on Thursday, started Sunday eight shots in arrears but put together the sort of flawless round necessary to have a chance, carding six birdies over his first 11 holes, then adding an insurance birdie at the par-4 16th.  Though Kaymer theoretically had a chance to tie with an eagle at the 567-yard 18th (he could only make par), Stal’s chief competition came from world number one Rory McIlroy, who battled an inconsistent putter all week before birdieing six of his final 11 holes en route to a 66 and a 270 aggregate – one stroke higher than the triumphant Stal.