GOLF: Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee carded a final round 69 to secure his first European Tour win since 2005 in the €1million Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open at New Kuta Golf Club in Bali today.
Jaidee began the final round of the co-sanctioned event with a one stroke overnight lead before opening up a four shot lead at one point, with birdies on four of the first seven holes.
Bogeys on the eighth and 14th saw his lead trimmed to one but a birdie on the 16th gave him a cushion to take into the closing holes as he finished on 12-under-par 276, two ahead of Sweden's Alexander Noren (70) and the English pair of Steve Webster (68) and Simon Dyson (69).
Rafael Cabrera Bello of Spain carded the day's best round of 65 to join Richard Bland (70) in a tie for fifth on nine under with Jyoti Randhawa of India (70) and the English pair of Simon Griffiths (71) and Simon Khan (68) a further shot back on eight under.
Michael Hoey made good strides up the leaderboard with his closing 67 to finish in a tie for 22nd on four-under, the same mark as Gary Murphy, who closed with a 71. Both picked up cheques worth €10,077.98 for their efforts.
Thongchai continued a trend that has seen the third round leader or co-leader win every edition of the Indonesia Open since it was revived as a joint-sanctioned event by the European and Asian Tours in 2005.
Nursing a narrow lead at the start of the final round, he parred his first two holes before sinking consecutive birdies on the next three including a chip-in from the collar of the green on the fifth.
The 39-year-old narrowly missed out on a fourth in a row when his long putt lipped out on the sixth, but he holed his birdie attempt from the fringe on the seventh to improve to 13 under.
That briefly gave him a four shot advantage but he gave one back with a bogey on the par-three eighth after putting his tee shot into the bunker and blasting well past the pin from a dreadful lie in the sand.
His lead appeared fragile at times on the back nine and he found himself just one ahead of Webster when he bogeyed the 14th after putting his approach shot into rough and failing to get up and down.
But with Webster failing to capitalise on birdie opportunities on his closing holes, the Thai managed to stretch his advantage once again with a birdie on the 16th.
Dyson began the day on seven under and launched an early challenge for the lead, drawing level with Thonchai on 10 under after picking up three birdies on the first five holes.
However, the 2006 Indonesia Open winner was unable to sustain his challenge as he three-putted the seventh for a bogey and missed a short birdie putt on the 10th.
A birdie on the 11th put him back into contention but his challenge evaporated on the 14th when he carded a double bogey after he found a fairway bunker with his tee shot and shanked his shot from the sand into an unplayable lie behind a tree.
Birdies on the 16th and 18th proved too little, too late for the 31-year-old as Jaidee went on to pick up the €163,867.04 winner’s cheque.
Collated final round scores and totals in the European Tour Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open, New Kuta GC, Bali, Indonesia
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
276Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 71 69 67 69
278Steve Webster 69 69 72 68, Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 73 66 70, Simon Dyson 68 71 70 69
279Richard Bland 72 71 66 70, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 71 72 71 65
280Simon Griffiths 70 70 69 71, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 74 70 66 70, Simon Khan 68 76 68 68
281Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 69 76 70 66, Jason Knutzon (USA) 72 70 70 69
282Anthony Kang (USA) 70 71 70 71, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 73 66 70 73, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 70 71 74 67, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 69 73 70 70
283Bryan Saltus (USA) 70 72 72 69, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 73 71 70 69, Gaurav Ghei (Ind) 72 68 74 69, Scott Drummond 71 69 69 74, Pelle Edberg (Swe) 74 71 69 69, Digvijay Singh (Ind) 69 72 71 71
284Wei Chih Lu (Tha) 71 70 71 72, Darren Beck (Aus) 71 71 72 70, Juvic Pagunsan (Phi) 71 74 69 70, Tony Carolan (Aus) 68 74 71 71, Gary Murphy 70 72 71 71, Angelo Que (Phi) 64 76 73 71, Michael Hoey 71 73 73 67, Ross McGowan 69 71 69 75
285Jamie Donaldson 68 71 71 75, Danny Willett 70 74 73 68
286Frankie Minoza (Phi) 74 69 70 73, Andrew Coltart 73 71 71 71, Rhys Davies 69 73 73 71, Chawalit Plaphol (Tha) 71 71 74 70, Kyung-Tae Kim (Kor) 73 68 74 71, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 71 74 74 67, Brett Rumford (Aus) 70 73 74 69, Gavin Flint (Aus) 70 72 71 73, Sam Little 73 70 71 72, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 72 73 72 69, Rory Hie (Ina) 70 72 72 72
287Richie Ramsay 68 76 72 71, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 74 71 71 71, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 74 71 73 69
288Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 71 74 73 70, Zaw Moe (Kor) 73 71 71 73, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 69 74 71 74, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 68 75 73 72, Gary Lockerbie 71 72 69 76, Ted Oh (Kor) 73 67 73 75, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 70 72 71 75, Miles Tunnicliff 69 71 77 71
289Chinarat Phadungsil (Tha) 70 71 72 76, James Kamte (Rsa) 72 71 70 76, Oliver Fisher 71 74 72 72, Mardan Mamat (Sin) 74 71 72 72
290Neven Basic (Aus) 75 70 70 75
291Antonio Lascuna (Phi) 68 73 75 75, Mark Foster 72 71 73 75, Seve Benson 70 73 74 74
292Markus Brier (Aut) 71 74 73 74, Scott Strange (Aus) 73 71 76 72
293Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 71 72 81 69, Marcel Siem (Ger) 76 68 78 71, Shiv Shankar Prasad Chowrasia (Ind) 70 73 77 73
294John Bickerton 71 74 72 77
295Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 74 71 74 76
298Taco Remkes (Ned) 70 73 77 78
