Denmark’s Jeff Winther claimed his first European Tour title with a hard-fought victory in the Mallorca Golf Open.
A level-par final round of 70 at Santa Ponsa was enough to give Winther a one-shot victory over Sweden’s Sebastian Soderberg and home favourites Pep Angles and Jorge Campillo.
Soderberg, who also finished runner-up in the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama seven days ago, held a share of the lead after 12 holes but bogeyed the 13th and 15th.
Winther took a two-shot lead into the final day following his second 62 of the week on Saturday, but despite saving par on the third with a left-handed shot from the base of a tree, his advantage was quickly erased.
Soderberg birdied the second, third and seventh to join Winther at the top of the leaderboard before the 33-year-old Dane made what would be his only birdie of the day on the 10th to reclaim the lead.
A birdie on the 11th saw Soderberg draw alongside his playing partner once more, only for the Swede to three putt the 13th and then fail to get up and down from a greenside bunker on the 15th.
That gave Winther some welcome breathing space and he had the luxury of dropping his only shot of the weekend on the 18th before celebrating with his wife and children on the green.
“I don’t know what to say right now,” Winther told Sky Sports. “I’m very pleased to see both of my kids here and my friends. It’s fantastic. I’m overwhelmed.
“I don’t know how we’re going to celebrate. We’ve got a flight home tomorrow at 10 but tonight’s going to be great I think.”
Winther paid tribute to the calming influence of his caddie, adding: “I think Stretch (Ian More) was doing a great job of making me think of all other stuff than golf. So many thanks to him.”
Cormac Sharvin was best of the Irish finishers, ending up on one-over for the tournament after a final round of 68. The Bangor man’s round of two-under moved him up to a tied-61st placing.
Jonathan Caldwell on the other hand struggled his way to a closing ten-over 80 to finish in 72nd. A round that contained seven bogeys, two double-bogeys and a solitary birdie represented a difficult finish that left Caldwell on 6-over for the tournament.
Final leaderboard (par 70, British and Irish unless stated)
265 Jeff Winther (Den) 62 71 62 70
266 Pep Angles (Spa) 65 70 64 67, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 64 69 64 69, Sebastian Soederberg (Swe) 66 68 64 68
268 Sebastian Garcia (Spa) 66 67 67 68, Laurie Canter 68 66 70 64
270 Andrew Johnston 66 71 67 66, Jack Senior 68 67 66 69, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 63 71 69 67, Bryce Easton (Rsa) 63 67 70 70
271 Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 67 72 65 67, Renato Paratore (Ita) 68 71 64 68, Matthias Schmid (Ger) 64 70 66 71, Oliver Wilson 68 71 65 67, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 64 69 65 73
273 Ashun Wu (Chn) 66 69 70 68, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 68 68 69 68, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 67 71 69 66, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 67 71 66 69
274 Scott Hend (Aus) 71 68 66 69, John Catlin (USA) 67 73 69 65, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 65 73 67 69, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 65 70 68 71, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 66 71 67 70, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 67 70 67 70
275 Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 67 68 71 69, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 65 72 67 71, Robin Roussel (Fra) 68 67 69 71, Connor Syme 66 73 70 66, Aaron Cockerill (Can) 66 68 68 73, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 67 67 70 71, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 71 70 68 66, Louis de Jager (Rsa) 69 71 68 67
276 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 68 69 71, Joost Luiten (Ned) 70 70 68 68, Romain Langasque (Fra) 67 70 72 67, Oliver Farr 68 73 68 67, Garrick Porteous 69 71 69 67, Zhengkai Bai (Chn) 66 75 69 66
277 Richard Mansell 70 64 71 72, Eddie Pepperell 66 73 70 68, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 67 73 70 67, Josh Geary (Nzl) 67 71 71 68, Damien Perrier (Fra) 70 68 69 70
278 Ondrej Lieser (Cze) 70 71 69 68, Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 67 73 67 71, Sean Crocker (USA) 67 72 69 70, Clement Sordet (Fra) 73 66 67 72
279 Ignacio Elvira (Spa) 67 70 72 70, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 71 70 69, Dale Whitnell 68 73 68 70, Jordan Wrisdale 68 73 66 72, Jacobo Pastor (Spa) 66 71 72 70
280 Nicolai von Dellingshausen (Ger) 71 70 66 73, Adria Arnaus (Spa) 71 70 68 71, Gavin Green (Mal) 68 69 70 73, David Howell 71 70 70 69, Joel Stalter (Fra) 70 71 69 70, Lars van Meijel (Ned) 68 70 72 70, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 66 71 69 74
281 Ross McGowan 70 71 69 71, Cormac Sharvin 71 70 72 68, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 67 73 68 73, Rhys Enoch 66 73 69 73
282 Matthew Southgate 70 71 72 69, Svn-Hwan Kim (USA) 70 70 71 71, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 65 74 73 70
283 Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 72 69 70 72, Matthew Jordan 69 70 71 73, Joel Sjoeholm (Swe) 65 73 74 71
285 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 67 72 73 73
286 Jonathan Caldwell 66 71 69 80
