Golf:Peter Lawrie carded a 68 in the final round of the Volvo China Open but was unable to overhaul the lead of Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts who ensured a four-shot victory with a 66.
The Dubliner needed a birdie at the last to take outright ownership of second but settled in the end for a share of runners-up prize purse with Pablo Martin (63), Danny Lee (65) and Soren Kjeldsen (66).
Sweden's Christian Nilsson finished a shot further back in sixth, with Englishman Danny Willett and Jamie Donaldson of Wales sat alongside Gregory Havret in a trio of players on 18 under.
Gareth Maybin shot a 67 to tie for 10th on 17 under but nobody could come close to Colsaerts's 24-under-par total.
He stormed around the Luxehills Country Club with six birdies in his final round to become only the second Belgian to win a European Tour title, following in the footsteps of Phillipe Touissant 37 years ago.
Colsaerts admits it has been a difficult journey on the way to claiming his first European trophy, but worth all the ups and downs during his 10 years on the tour.
“I’m enjoying every second of it,” he told www.europeantour.com. “I’m dizzy - my head is going all over the place. I’ve been waiting for this for a very long time and I think I did it in the best of manners so I’m really delighted.
“A lot of people were expecting big things of me and for me to win tournaments a long time before. I lost my card, I got on Tour pretty young and I didn’t know how to handle myself. The lowest point was 2008 and I had to get my life back together.
“I was doing basically every wrong thing you could possibly think of. One day I woke up though — I went to Australia for four months and it changed me forever.
“It’s been a hell of a journey looking back, from when I was 18 and got on Tour. I didn’t really have any idea of the level and how high you had to raise your game to play on Tour. I never lost faith of getting to where I am and I’m glad I did it this way.”
Collated final-round scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, Irish in bold, par 72):
264Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 65 67 66 66
268Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 65 71 66 66, Danny Lee (Nzl) 66 68 69 65, Peter Lawrie 68 64 68 68,Pablo Martin (Spa) 70 68 67 63
269Christian Nilsson (Swe) 70 65 70 64
270Jamie Donaldson 70 61 70 69, Danny Willett 70 66 69 65, Gregory Havret (Fra) 66 66 68 70
271Aaron Townsend (Aus) 68 66 68 69, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 66 66 71 68, Gareth Maybin 65 67 72 67, Richard Finch 69 67 71 64, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 70 67 70 64
272Joost Luiten (Ned) 66 67 71 68
273Chang-won Han (Kor) 64 70 65 74, Peter Whiteford 67 68 70 68, Keith Horne (Rsa) 63 69 70 71, Michael Jonzon (Swe) 67 68 69 69, Anthony Brown (Aus) 67 71 67 68, Bradley Dredge 65 70 69 69
274Brett Rumford (Aus) 71 67 70 66, Damien McGrane 70 68 68 68, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 66 67 72 69, Paul Waring 73 66 67 68, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 66 67 71 70
275Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 67 66 74 68, Gary Boyd 71 66 71 67, James Morrison 65 69 69 72, Michael Wright (Aus) 69 68 70 68
276Martin Wiegele (Aut) 68 70 68 70, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 67 65 74 70, John Parry 67 72 72 65, Daniel Gaunt (Aus) 68 68 68 72, Ho-sung Choi (Kor) 71 67 66 72, Soren Hansen (Den) 68 68 71 69, Lian-Wei Zhang (Chn) 71 68 70 67, Andrew Dodt (Aus) 74 65 72 65, Stephen Dodd 72 67 67 70, Tano Goya (Arg) 71 64 69 72
277Andre Stolz (Aus) 68 68 67 74, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 68 66 72 71
278Richie Ramsay 66 69 69 74, Steve Alker (Nzl) 66 67 71 74, Chris Wood 70 67 70 71, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 67 69 72, Michael Hendry (Nzl) 70 69 66 73, Wei Wei (Chn) 67 67 73 71, Jin-ho Choi (Kor) 66 72 70 70, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 71 67 73 67, Tetsuji Hiratsuka (Jpn) 69 70 70 69
279Robert Rock 70 67 74 68, Wei-Huang Wu (Chn) 70 67 70 72, Stephen Gallacher 70 65 72 72, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 68 66 71 74, Simon Dyson 69 68 73 69, Stephen Allan (Aus) 72 67 73 67, Michael Hoey 68 70 76 65
280Shiv Kapur (Ind) 68 70 72 70, Oliver Wilson 70 65 75 70
281 Shane Lowry 69 70 74 68
282David Oh (USA) 71 68 70 73, Michael Campbell (Nzl) 67 71 75 69, Jbe Kruger (Rsa) 69 69 71 73, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 68 71 74 69, Dong Su (Chn) 70 68 70 74, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 69 68 74 71
283Todd Hamilton (USA) 69 70 69 75
284Gui Ming Liao (Chn) 69 70 71 74, Kim Felton (Aus) 70 67 74 73
286David Drysdale 68 69 74 75, Rhys Davies 69 66 79 72
288Tian Yuan (Chn) 72 67 77 72, Anthony Summers (Aus) 69 69 76 74
