Golf – European Tour:Rhys Davies captured his first European Tour title with a brilliant display in Morocco today. The 24-year-old former Walker Cup amateur, a team-mate of Rory McIlroy in 2007, lifted the Hassan Trophy by two shots after a closing seven under par 66.
Davies trailed South African Louis Oosthuizen by three at Royal Dar Es Salam with 15 holes to play, but birdied eight of the next 11 and took the first prize with a 25 under total of 266.
For Oosthuizen it was a fourth runners-up finish on the circuit, while Frenchman Thomas Levet, Spaniard Ignacio Garrido, Finn Mikko Ilonen and another South African Thomas Aiken shared third place five strokes further back.
The Irish pair of Peter Lawrie and Gareth Maybin finished on 15 under with Darren Clarke well down the field on five under.
Davies, British boy champion seven years ago, said: “I’m a little bit lost at the moment — this is all completely surreal to me. I didn’t really think very much out there. It was all a bit of a blur.”
Told about his eight birdies from the fourth to the 14th Davies, who will move into the world’s top 100 as a result, added: “I didn’t know I did that. I just felt I could make every putt and felt in control of my swing. That was the best I’ve hit it all week.”
Victory might have taken Oosterhuizen back into the world’s top 50 a week before invitations to The Masters are handed out, but he will now have to try for that again when the Tour reaches European soil at last in Malaga this coming week.
Collated final round scores & totals
(Gbr & Irl unless stated,
Irishin bold par 73):
266Rhys Davies 68 64 68 66
268Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 70 64 64 70
273Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 67 68 67 71, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 71 69 67 66, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 67 67 69 70, Thomas Levet (Fra) 69 65 68 71
275Robert Rock 71 67 67 70, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 68 70 66, Danny Willett 73 67 64 71
276Francesco Molinari (Ita) 66 70 70 70, Gareth Maybin72 69 66 69, Peter Lawrie66 70 73 67
277Thomas Bjorn (Den) 72 68 70 67
279Joost Luiten (Ned) 70 65 73 71
280Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 73 67 70 70, Robert Coles 72 65 73 70, David Lynn 69 71 70 70, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 67 71 72
281Richard Bland 69 73 68 71, David Howell 70 70 73 68, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 68 68 71 74, Anthony Kang (USA) 70 69 72 70, Anthony Wall 69 73 69 70, Gary Boyd 71 72 70 68, Stephen Gallacher 66 72 71 72, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 68 72 71 70
282Marco Ruiz (Par) 74 69 70 69, Sam Little 67 69 72 74
283Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 66 75 71 71, David Drysdale 71 70 70 72, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 66 74 71 72, Julien Clement (Swi) 69 71 72 71, David Horsey 67 71 75 70
284Peter Whiteford 72 70 69 73, Nick Dougherty 66 69 72 77, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 72 69 68 75, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 70 67 73 74, Paul Broadhurst 74 68 70 72
285John Parry 74 68 72 71, Stephen Dodd 70 70 71 74, Pablo Martin (Spa) 69 73 73 70, Barry Lane 74 68 69 74
286Niclas Fasth (Swe) 68 71 73 74, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 75 66 71 74, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 67 73 73 73, Julien Quesne (Fra) 72 65 74 75, Darren Clarke69 72 72 73, Graeme Storm 73 69 71 73
287Steve Webster 72 68 71 76, Azuma Yano (Jpn) 70 68 75 74, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 73 68 73 73
288Shiv Kapur (Ind) 67 73 74 74, Tano Goya (Arg) 74 68 74 72
289Andrew Butterfield 71 69 73 76, Jamie Donaldson 73 70 74 72
290Faycal Serghini (Mor) 73 68 74 75, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 71 71 74 74, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 67 72 74 77, Mark Brown (Nzl) 69 73 73 75, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 69 73 73 75
291Simon Khan 72 71 76 72
292Younes El Hassani (Mor) 71 72 74 75
293Gary Lockerbie 74 69 73 77
294Jhared Hack (USA) 71 68 76 79
297Peter Baker 73 69 76 79