European Tour: Rory McIlroy had to settle for a share of second place today as Simon Dyson seized control of the Dunhill Links Championship. Dyson continued his recent rich vein of form, shooting a final round 66 to win by three shots.
Dyson posted six birdies in the first seven holes on his way to a 20-under-par total. And despite going around St Andrew’s in 69, McIlroy could not live with the Englishman’s pace.
Dyson had closed with a 63 and won a play-off to take the Dutch Open title in August and at the time called it the round of his life. However, the 31-year-old has now reassessed his career-best effort.
"The KLM (Dutch) round was great but it was nowhere near compared to this," Dyson told reporters. "It's the best round of my life. This is like our fifth major. What could be better than doing this at the home of golf?
"I couldn't have wished for a better start. It was a brilliant day."
McIlroy ruined his chances of winning by bogeying the 12th, 16th and 17th. But a birdie on the last was huge for the money list battle.
The €281,640 prize money elevates the 20-year-old from third to first place in the Race to Dubai standings.
One behind Luke Donald overnight, Dyson pocketed €540,440 and now leads Europe’s Ryder Cup race and is in the world’s top 50 for the first time. Mclroy finished alongside Oliver Wilson, who has yet to win on tour despite eight runners-up finishes.
Darren Clarke finished joint seventh on 14 under with Paul McGinley one back and Belfast’s Michael Hoey on 11 under.
Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell both finished on 10 under, one better than Damien McGrane.
Collated scores(Irl & Gbr unless stated, Irish in bold par 72)
268Simon Dyson 68 66 68 66
271 Rory McIlroy68 65 69 69, Oliver Wilson 69 67 70 65
272Richie Ramsay 67 66 70 69, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 70 68 65 69
273Ross McGowan 66 68 71 68
274Luke Donald 72 65 64 73, Darren Clarke68 68 67 71
275Gary Lockerbie 69 71 67 68, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 70 71 68 66, Francois Delamontagne (Fra) 71 67 67 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 73 67 67 68, Kenneth Ferrie 69 66 69 71, Paul McGinley 69 67 69 70, Lee Westwood 73 67 66 69
276Peter Hanson (Swe) 72 64 75 65, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 67 68 69 72, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 67 71 68 70
277Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 71 70 68, Marc Warren 70 69 71 67, David Dixon 68 67 73 69, Simon Khan 74 70 67 66, Graeme Storm 69 69 72 67, Michael Hoey67 66 70 74, Paul Broadhurst 70 67 72 68
278Richard Bland 72 67 71 68, Carlos Del Moral (Spa) 69 69 71 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 70 64 70 74, Graeme McDowell69 70 68 71, Steven O'Hara 71 66 74 67, Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 68 70 70, Ernie Els (Rsa) 72 72 66 68, James Kamte (Rsa) 69 69 70 70, Sam Little 68 71 67 72, Padraig Harrington70 70 72 66
279Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 73 69 68 69, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 71 68 69 71, Damien McGrane71 71 68 69, Dale Whitnell 69 69 73 68, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 74 67 68 70, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 68 71 71 69
280Callum Macaulay 72 73 67 68, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 69 70 73 68, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 69 71 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 64 74 72 70, Marcel Siem (Ger) 70 71 70 69, Danny Willett 71 67 70 72, Mark Foster 71 70 68 71, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 69 73 68, Bradley Dredge 72 69 69 70
281 Gareth Maybin66 73 71 71, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 70 66 73 72
282Hennie Otto (Rsa) 70 70 72 70, Graham Delaet (Can) 70 68 74 70, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 70 70 71 71, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 70 71 70 71, Brad Faxon (USA) 74 67 71 70, Trevor Immelman (Rsa) 71 67 72 72, Keith Horne (Rsa) 70 70 70 72, Richard Green (Aus) 72 69 69 72, Alastair Forsyth 70 64 77 71
283Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 71 70 72, Gary Murphy71 72 69 71, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 72 73 67 71, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 72 68 70 73
284Brett Quigley (USA) 72 71 69 72, Wallace Booth 72 65 75 72, David Lynn 73 66 73 72
285Chih-bing Lam (Sin) 69 69 74 73
287Lee Slattery 68 71 72 76
World Rankings:1 Tiger Woods 16.35pts, 2 Phil Mickelson 8.18, 3 Steve Stricker 7.80, 4 Paul Casey 6.32, 5 Henrik Stenson 5.87, 6 Kenny Perry 5.81, 7 Padraig Harrington5.68, 8 Sergio Garcia 5.53, 9 Jim Furyk 5.49, 10 Geoff Ogilvy 5.23, 11 Lee Westwood 5.18, 12 Martin Kaymer 4.94, 13 Stewart Cink 4.89, 14 Sean O'Hair 4.74, 15 Vijay Singh 4.40, 16 Camilo Villegas 4.29, 17 Lucas Glover 4.28, 18 Zach Johnson 4.17, 19 Rory McIlroy4.14, 20 Ian Poulter 4.07
Other leading Europeans:24 Robert Karlsson, 26 Ross Fisher, 27 Luke Donald, 33 Soren Kjeldsen, 35 Oliver Wilson, 40 Miguel Angel Jimenez, 42 Soren Hansen, 44 Simon Dyson, 46 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano, 47 Alvaro Quiros, 49 Graeme McDowell, 51 Anders Hansen, 61 Justin Rose, 62 Chris Wood, 63 Peter Hanson, 67 Francesco Molinari, 77 Alexander Noren, 92 Nick Dougherty, 95 Anthony Wall, 97 Thomas Levet
Race to Dubai:1 Rory McIlroy(NIrl) €2,008,567, 2 Martin Kaymer (Ger) €1,982,055, 3 Paul Casey (Eng) €1,965,150, 4 Lee Westwood (Eng) €1,741,940, 5 Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) €1,606,805, 6 Ross Fisher (Eng) €1,524,347, 7 Oliver Wilson (Eng) €1,499,505, 8 Simon Dyson (Eng) €1,387,517, 9 Angel Cabrera (Arg) €1,385,499, 10 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) €1,240,053
Other leading Irish:21 Padraig Harrington €868,662, 34 Graeme McDowell €668,972, 47 Peter Lawrie €543,929, 49 Damien McGrane €512,732, 55 Gareth Maybin €485,877, 65 Darren Clarke Nir €437,859, 82 Michael Hoey €338,832
Ryder Cup Table
World Points:1 SIMON DYSON 63.5, 2 PADRAIG HARRINGTON47.3, 3 RAFAEL CABRERA-BELLO 36.4, 4 ALEXANDER NOREN 33.9, 5 Rory McIlroy 32.9, 6 Oliver Wilson 24.6, 7 Edoardo Molinari 24.3, 8 Anders Hansen 24.0, 9 Soren Hansen 23.4, 10 Bradley Dredge 21.7
European Points:1 Simon Dyson 690,656, 2 Alexander Noren 352,330, 3 RORY McILROY330,340, 4 Rafael Cabrera-Bello 325,070, 5 OLIVER WILSON 301,540, 6 BRADLEY DREDGE 249,056, 7 ROSS McGOWAN 246,503, 8 ANDERS HANSEN 220,000, 9 Soren Hansen 181,302, 10 Peter Hanson 155,892
(Capitals denote players in qualifying positions)
