GOLF Volvo PGA Championship: It was the classic tale of the underdog with an oversized bite. Scott Drummond, ranked 184th on the European Tour, produced a scintillating eight-under-par 64 to claim the Volvo PGA Championship on the West Course at Wentworth.
As he teed off with Angel Cabrera in the final match, few would have countenanced a victory for the English-born rookie who declared for Scotland, the country of his father's birth, on turning professional.
Cabrera, Justin Rose, Ireland's Darren Clarke, Ernie Els, Thomas Bjorn and Nick Faldo were all hovering within a couple of shots of the lead when hostilities commenced but Drummond showed a bulldog's tenacity to conjure a flawless round of eight birdies and no dropped shots.
He led the tournament on the 14th hole, a fact of which he was unaware as he studiously avoided looking at the leaderboards. For most of the round he went tête-à-tête with Cabrera and it was the Argentinian who blinked first as they came down the stretch.
Just one day past his 30th birthday, Drummond had many reasons to be cheerful, the recent birth of his daughter, Kiera, for one, but this victory, his first, in his 27th European Tour event will be one to celebrate in its own right. Up until yesterday he had earned just 16,595.47 but his bank balance will have improved following this win to the tune of 625,000.
He smiled: "It's a little bit more than I've won in the past. I think the biggest cheque before was about 20,000 on the Challenge Tour. I can't really comprehend it at the moment. I stayed focused out there and I wasn't thinking about winning, about pay cheques. I got on with my game: it's a dream, I can't believe it."
Drummond tied the championship record of 19 under par, set in 2002 by another player taking his maiden Tour victory, Anders Hansen. He also became the first rookie to win on the European Tour since Marcus Fraser at the 2003 BMW Russian Open.
Originally listed as fourth reserve, he wouldn't even have made the starting gate but for Greg Owen's forced withdrawal. His victory will now earn him a five-year Tour exemption, until the end of 2009, not to mention improving his world ranking from the 435th place he occupied prior to the tournament.
Cabrera remained closest to him yesterday, not just through being his playing partner, but also on the scoreboard, finishing a couple of shots adrift on 17 under.
Sweden's Joakim Haeggman was a shot further back while Clarke headed a trio that included Hansen - he also shot a 64 yesterday - and England's Nick Faldo, who finished with a six-under 66.
Clarke was once again undone by his putter and his love-hate relationship with the closing two par fives, the 17th and 18th. Over the last three rounds he played them in just one under and that simply doesn't suffice in this company.
"I played nicely again, had a lot of really good putts around the back side (of the course) but one of them went in. I finished poorly. If you look at the way I played 17 and 18 I wasted chances," he said.
