Antoine Rozner holed a remarkable 60-foot putt on the 72nd hole as he made a closing birdie to win the Qatar Masters in dramatic fashion.
The Frenchman entered the final day in Doha three shots off the lead but dragged himself into contention alongside Italian Guido Migliozzi, who came from even further back to set the clubhouse target at seven under after a 65.
Rozner was in a tie for the lead with Migliozzi stood on the 18th tee and was facing a tricky two-putt to guarantee a playoff after leaving his approach into the last well short.
But the 28-year-old saw his first effort first break right and then left as it came over the ridge and found the bottom of the cup, handing him closing 67 and a winning score of eight under.
“I was just trying to hit a good putt,” he said. “I knew two putts would be very important, I tried to get a good speed first.
“I thought I had a good read on it, then 15 feet short I was like ‘oh, this is going to have a chance’. I kept looking at it and it went straight in the hole — the best putt of my career.”
The win is Rozner’s second in just over three months after he claimed a maiden European Tour title before Christmas in Dubai, and he has just four missed cuts in his 29 events.
That sort of consistency could make him a dark horse for Padraig Harrington’s Ryder Cup team later this year, but Rozner was refusing to get carried away.
“The Ryder Cup in Paris... I was there every day,” he said. “That’s a dream for me, to compete in one. If I can get it done this year — there is still a long, long road to go. It should be a goal. It will be, for the rest of the season, a goal for me.”
Rozner sandwiched a gain from 12 feet at the fifth with birdies at the par-five second and sixth before adding another from 30 feet at the seventh. He dropped a shot at the eighth and then rattled off nine pars before his big finish.
India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar and South African Darren Fichardt finished alongside Migliozzi at seven under, two shots clear of Wales’ Jamie Donaldson and England’s Richard McEvoy.
Collated scores & totals in the final round of European Tour Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, Education City GC, Doha, Qatar (British unless stated, Par 71):
276 Antoine Rozner (Fra) 69 72 68 67
277 Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 71 67 74 65, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 67 73 68 69, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 68 68 70 71
279 Richard McEvoy 65 73 73 68, Jamie Donaldson 68 68 73 70
280 Brandon Stone (Rsa) 69 68 73 70, Chris Paisley 67 70 73 70
281 Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 66 71 72 72, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 67 69 75 70, Thomas Detry (Bel) 66 72 72 71, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 70 72 72 67
282 Thomas Pieters (Bel) 68 69 76 69
283 Shaun Norris (Rsa) 69 70 73 71, Jeff Winther (Den) 67 67 77 72, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 67 70 74 72, Johannes Veerman (USA) 71 69 72 71, Lars van Meijel (Ned) 69 72 73 69
284 Andy Sullivan 69 74 73 68, Alexander Bjoerk (Swe) 68 73 78 65, Hennie Du Plessis (Rsa) 65 74 77 68, Jordan Smith 69 74 71 70, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 65 72 74 73, Grant Forrest 71 68 75 70, Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 66 71 77 70, Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 69 72 72 71, Yi-Keun Chang (Kor) 70 71 71 72
285 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 67 74 70 74, Callum Shinkwin 70 68 73 74, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 71 68 75 71, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 65 71 78 71, David Drysdale 70 72 73 70, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 68 70 73 74, Dale Whitnell 68 72 73 72
286 David Law 64 75 75 72, Sean Crocker (USA) 68 73 73 72, Justin Walters (Rsa) 73 70 72 71, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 68 69 75 74, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 70 69 73 74, Jack Senior 68 68 71 79, Ricardo Santos (Por) 71 71 74 70
287 John Catlin (USA) 70 70 75 72, Scott Jamieson 67 71 76 73, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 66 72 76 73, Ashley Chesters 72 70 76 69, Louis de Jager (Rsa) 68 72 75 72
288 Marcus Armitage 69 72 72 75,Wil Besseling (Ned) 72 69 76 71, Rhys Enoch 69 74 73 72
289 Romain Langasque (Fra) 70 70 75 74, Alexander Levy (Fra) 71 72 71 75, Julian Suri (USA) 70 68 84 67, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 69 70 76 74, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 67 75 74 73, Robert Rock 72 71 78 68, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 67 74 76 72, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 69 70 78 72
290 Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 71 72 75 72, Richie Ramsay 69 74 77 70, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 73 69 79 69, Toby Tree 67 75 78 70
291 Connor Syme 69 72 75 75, David Coupland 69 74 73 75, 292 Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 69 71 77 75, Chris Wood 73 68 75 76, Eddie Pepperell 69 71 75 77, Cormac Sharvin (NIrl) 70 73 77 72
293 Steven Brown 69 74 73 77, Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 70 73 80 70, Ignacio Elvira (Spa) 69 73 77 74
294 Matthias Schwab (Aut) 71 71 75 77
296 Francesco Laporta (Ita) 68 73 78 77
