Tyrrell Hatton gave himself the ideal early birthday present by achieving his childhood dream of winning the BMW PGA Championship.
Hatton carded a closing 67 at Wentworth to claim his fifth European Tour title on 19 under par, four shots clear of France’s Victor Perez.
For Shane Lowry it was a final round of 73 which was pockmarked with mistakes and will leave the 2019 British Open champion frustrated at what could have been after he led through two rounds.
Indeed Lowry held the lead through eight holes on Saturday but a double bogey on the ninth seemed to send him off rhythm and he never quite got it back.
On Sunday, early bogeys at the second and third put paid to any real hopes of winning and although he picked up birdie on the fourth, 12th and 18th, further bogeys at the seventh and 15th left him with weekend scores of 74 and 73 to follow a 67 and 65 over the first two days.
For Hatton, the victory will see him break into the world’s top 10 for the first time when the rankings are updated on Monday, two days before he will celebrate his 29th birthday.
“It’s unbelievable,” he told Sky Sports. “This was a goal of mine to win this tournament in my career and part of me is sad I didn’t get to experience the crowds, but it’s just amazing to win this trophy.”
Hatton, who won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, saw his three-shot overnight lead wiped out in the space of four holes as Perez birdied the second and holed from 22 feet for an eagle on the fourth.
A birdie on the fifth edged Hatton back in front and although Perez quickly responded with a birdie on the seventh, Hatton rolled in a hat-trick of birdies from the ninth to move two shots clear.
The leading pair traded near-identical birdies on the 11th and both bogeyed the 13th after Perez had picked up a shot on the par-five 12th, but Hatton struck a decisive blow with his fifth birdie of the day on the difficult 15th.
A wild drive from Perez then led to a bogey on the 17th and left Hatton clear to enjoy the final two holes as he claimed his fifth European Tour title and the first prize of €868,000.
Former Masters champion Patrick Reed eagled the 18th for the second day running to finish in a tie for third on 14 under par with England’s Andy Sullivan, whose 65 was the best score of the day.
European Ryder Cup captain Pádraig Harrington finished with a final round of 71 to take a share of 40th at two under par while Graeme McDowell produced his best round of the week – a 67 – to finish at six under par and tied for 24th.
Collated fourth round scores & totals in the BMW PGA Championship, Wentworth GC, England (British unless stated, par 72):
269 Tyrrell Hatton 66 67 69 67
273 Victor Perez (Fra) 69 66 70 68
274 Andy Sullivan 71 69 69 65, Patrick Reed (USA) 70 68 68 68
275 Ian Poulter 69 70 68 68
276 Eddie Pepperell 67 70 70 69
277 Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 68 67 70 72, Matthew Fitzpatrick 67 65 76 69, Renato Paratore (Ita) 73 69 68 67
278 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 72 67 71 68, Scott Hend (Aus) 68 69 73 68, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 73 68 69 68
279 Tommy Fleetwood 71 68 67 73, Shane Lowry (Irl) 67 65 74 73, David Horsey 70 69 67 73, Jordan Smith 72 67 71 69, Sami Valimaki (Fin) 72 67 74 66
280 Andrew Johnston 68 71 71 70, Lee Westwood 70 71 71 68
281 Richie Ramsay 71 71 71 68, Ross Fisher 72 72 69 68, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 68 70 73 70, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 70 69 69 73
282 Steven Brown 75 67 68 72, Matt Wallace 69 71 72 70, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 73 70 72 67
283 Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 71 71 71 70, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 71 73 71 68, Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 69 71 71 72, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 76 68 71 68, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 73 69 66 75
284 Adri Arnaus (Spa) 66 70 74 74, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 72 71 71 70, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 69 72 73 70, Grant Forrest 69 67 76 72, Danny Willett 71 71 74 68
285 Justin Rose 68 75 72 70, Michael Bullen 71 72 71 71, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 68 71 78 68
286 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 71 70 72 73, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 72 72 70 72, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 70 72 72 72, Pádraig Harrington (Irl) 72 71 72 71
287 Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 72 70 69 76, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 72 67 75 73, Sean Crocker (USA) 72 70 72 73, Matthew Southgate 70 73 76 68
288 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 73 70 72 73, Robert Rock 69 70 72 77, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 71 73 73 71, Gavin Green (Mal) 67 71 74 76, Thomas Detry (Bel) 72 71 76 69, Alexander Levy (Fra) 72 68 77 71
289 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 71 73 74 71, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 68 71 74 76, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 74 69 76 70
290 Kristoffer Broberg (Swe) 71 71 69 79
291 Robert Macintyre 73 68 77 73, Romain Langasque (Fra) 71 72 77 71
292 Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 75 68 73 76, Stephen Gallacher 72 71 74 75
293 Joel Stalter (Fra) 76 68 77 72, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 71 73 75 74, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 72 71 73 77
294 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 73 71 76 74, David Howell 72 68 80 74
296 Oliver Fisher 72 72 72 80
