South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout survived a few anxious moments before cruising to a six-shot victory in the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama.
Bezuidenhout took a five-shot lead into the final round and moved seven clear with birdies on the first two holes, but bogeyed four of the next five to see his advantage cut to three by playing partner and home favourite Jon Rahm.
However, a hat-trick of birdies from the ninth put Bezuidenhout firmly back in command and the 25-year-old duly claimed his first European Tour title and secured a place in the Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
Bezuidenhout, who was surprised by members of his family after holing out on the 18th, said: “It’s great. I’m proud of myself for hanging in there today after a tough stretch in the middle of my round.
“I made a great save on eight which kept the momentum on my side and bounced back with three birdies in a row there and that just settled me down nicely.
“I was still nervous, it’s a difficult course and anything can happen, especially on the last three holes, but I’m really pleased with the way I played and to finish it off is unbelievable.”
Rahm finished in a tie for second alongside fellow Spaniards Alvaro Quiros, Eduardo de la Riva and Adri Arnaus, as well as France’s Mike Lorenzo Vera, with tournament host Sergio Garcia a shot further back.
Garcia, who was seeking a fourth straight win in the event, said: “It was a very solid week and you’ve got to be realistic. I feel like I played the best I’ve played all year and made maybe two putts all week.
“I still finished seventh and that shows how well I hit the ball and that’s very positive. There’s going to be other weeks where those putts that are burning the edges are going to drop and then it will be an amazing week.”
Collated final scores & totals in the European Tour Andalucia Valderrama Masters, Real Club Valderrama, Sotogrande, Spain (British or Irish unless stated, par 71):
274 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 66 68 69 71
280 Adri Arnaus (Spa) 68 70 73 69, Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 68 72 72 68, Jon Rahm (Spa) 69 72 67 72, Eduardo Ger Lao Riva (Spa) 71 71 69 69, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 70 68 76 66
281 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 66 72 73 70
282 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 73 67 71, Thomas Detry (Bel) 74 68 68 72, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 71 72 69 70, Gavin Green (Mal) 66 74 73 69, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 70 70 68 74
283 Andy Sullivan 71 71 70 71, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 68 71 72 72
284 Steven Brown 70 72 69 73, Julian Suri (USA) 67 73 75 69, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 73 71 68 72, Jack Singh Brar 72 71 71 70, Scott Jamieson 68 71 74 71
285 Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 69 73 69 74, Joost Luiten (Ned) 68 75 72 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 73 67 70 75
286 Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 67 73 71 75, Kristoffer Reitan (Nor) 73 71 71 71, Min Woo Lee (Aus) 75 67 74 70
287 Sihwan Kim (Kor) 66 77 70 74, David Horsey 69 73 70 75, George Coetzee (Rsa) 70 69 73 75, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 68 72 71 76, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 71 72 73 71, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 69 71 77 70, Victor Perez (Fra) 65 74 74 74, Justin Walters (Rsa) 70 70 76 71, Sean Crocker (USA) 72 72 70 73, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 72 71 75 69, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 71 72 73 71
288 Grant Forrest 72 72 69 75, Chris Paisley 69 71 73 75
289 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 71 70 73 75, David Law 70 72 76 71, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 71 73 69 76, Hugo Leon (USA) 73 69 71 76, Andres Romero (Arg) 70 72 72 75, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 70 69 78 72, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 67 73 76 73
290 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 70 74 70 76, Anton Karlsson (Swe) 66 76 77 71, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 71 71 75 73, Stuart Manley 72 72 72 74, Ashley Chesters 71 73 76 70, Daniel Gavins 70 74 68 78, Paul Peterson (USA) 72 71 73 74
291 Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 71 73 72 75, David Lipsky (USA) 70 72 75 74, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 73 70 72 76
292 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 74 70 76 72, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 71 72 76, Bradley Dredge 67 71 76 78
293 Andrew Johnston 70 73 74 76, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 73 70 77 73, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 70 74 77 72, Samuel Del Val (Spa) 71 70 73 79, Kim Koivu (Fin) 72 70 76 75
294 Christofer Blomstrand (Swe) 75 69 75 75, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 68 75 71 80, Espen Kofstad (Nor) 70 70 81 73
296 Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita) 69 74 81 72, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 73 70 72 81
297 Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 71 73 75 78
302 Oliver Wilson 69 73 79 81
305 Hyo-won Park (Kor) 73 71 78 83
