Pádraig Harrington looks set to just miss out on the season-ending DP World Tour Championship despite carding a third straight 67 to finish on 19 under at the Aviv Dubai Championship.
That left the 50-year-old Dubliner in a share of eighth position and moved him up to 57th on the Race to Dubai standings, with the top 50 going on to next week’s $9 million tournament.
A number of top 50 players have already signalled that they will not play next week but Harrington will need a few more to pull out to bump himself up the list.
Harrington went for eagle on the par-five 18th in a bid to secure his place, only to find the left bunker. An average sand wedge left him a lengthy putt from the edge of the green but the Ryder Cup captain showed great nerve to sink the putt, which at that stage had him in position to make next week’s tournament.
In the end, some strong finishes pushed him down the leaderboard, none more so that England's Andy Sullivan, who was seven under for his last six holes, including an eagle on the last. A closing 65 left him into a share of fourth position and moving him up to 55th in the Race to Dubai standings
Denmark’s JB Hansen held his nerve to secure a second European Tour title.
Hansen carded a closing 68 on the Fire Course to finish 23 under par, a shot ahead of Italy's Francesco Laporta and Austria's Bernd Wiesberger.
Hansen and Laporta shared the lead heading into the final round and Hansen made the ideal start with a birdie on the first before both players picked up a shot on the par-five seventh.
A birdie on the 10th saw Hansen briefly double his lead, only for Laporta to respond immediately with a birdie on the par-three 11th.
Both players also birdied the par-five 13th as they looked to pull away from the chasing pack, but Laporta crucially missed from 10 feet on the 16th and came agonisingly close to holing from three times the distance on the last.
That meant Hansen had the luxury of two-putting from close range for par to add to the Joburg Open title he won a year ago at Randpark.
“It means a lot, especially with family and friends here, there was nothing in Joburg,” Hansen told Sky Sports.
“When I saw Jeff [Winther] win in Mallorca I was very jealous just because he had family and friends all there to celebrate with him and I really wanted that so I’m really glad I get to experience that.”
Hansen made 24 birdies and just one bogey during the week but asked if he felt as calm as he looked, the 31-year-old said with a smile: “I’ve heard that before but no.
“I said to Adam [Drummond, his caddie] down the last I’m struggling mate, we’ve got to talk about something else because I was thinking too far forward, so that was a bit hard.”
Wiesberger claimed a share of second place thanks to five birdies in the last seven holes in his 65.
Clandeboye's Jonathan Caldwell closed his week with a four-under 68 to finish on 11 under.
Final leaderboard
British and Irish unless stated, par 72
265 Joachim B Hansen (Den) 63 67 67 68
266 Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 67 66 68 65, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 66 64 67 69
268 Min-Woo Lee (Aus) 67 67 66 68, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 65 64 69 70, Andy Sullivan 65 71 67 65, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 70 68 63 67
269 Thorbjoern Olesen (Den) 67 68 68 66, Pádraig Harrington 68 67 67 67, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 67 64 68 70, Sean Crocker (USA) 67 66 69 67, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 72 67 63 67
270 Tommy Fleetwood 66 66 68 70, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 69 67 65 69, Paul Waring 65 67 70 68, Scott Jamieson 69 65 70 66
271 Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 69 66 67 69, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 68 71 66 66
272 Alexander Bjoerk (Swe) 69 67 69 67, Marcus Armitage 68 69 67 68, Daniel van Tonder (Rsa) 69 66 69 68, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 69 67 69 67, Alejandro Canizares (Esp) 69 70 66 67
273 Chris Wood 71 68 65 69, Victor Perez (Fra) 70 68 70 65, Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 72 66 71 64, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 68 70 66 69, Robert MacIntyre 68 68 69 68, Jordan Smith 69 68 71 65, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 66 69 70 68
274 Paul Casey 68 68 66 72, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 70 69 64 71, Sebastian Soederberg (Swe) 69 68 68 69, John Catlin (USA) 69 67 68 70, Callum Shinkwin 66 69 69 70, Romain Langasque (Fra) 69 68 68 69, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 67 70 69 68, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 69 69 66 70, Ashley Chesters 68 66 74 66, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 67 70 68 69, Robin Roussel (Fra) 69 64 72 69, Matthew Jordan 69 67 67 71, David Coupland 67 69 67 71
275 Dean Burmester (Rsa) 65 68 71 71, Daniel Gavins 69 70 70 66, Sam Horsfield 67 67 69 72, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 68 68 70 69, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 67 70 66 72, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 70 67 70 68, Jack Senior 70 66 70 69
276 Niklas Lemke (Swe) 67 67 69 73, Kristoffer Broberg (Swe) 67 72 70 67, Grant Forrest 69 65 73 69, Oliver Farr 69 66 70 71
277 Justin Harding (Rsa) 70 69 69 69, Ignacio Elvira (Esp) 69 69 68 71, Jonathan Caldwell 71 67 71 68, Alvaro Quiros (Esp) 67 71 70 69
278 Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 69 67 73 69, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 66 71 70 71
279 Stephen Gallacher 70 69 67 73, David Law 70 69 69 71
281 Jorge Campillo (Esp) 71 64 76 70
282 Sami Valimaki (Fin) 71 68 70 73, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 70 66 72 74, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 69 70 72 71, James Morrison 68 70 75 69,
283 Joel Stalter (Fra) 71 68 75 69
286 Jeff Winther (Den) 72 66 71 77
