Alfred Dunhill Championship, Charl Schwartzel Wins

 

Charl Schwartzel won the Alfred Dunhill Championship by a massive 12 shots at Leopard Creek Country Club in South Africa. 

Charl Schwartzel / Getty Images

The last round may have been interrupted by thunderstorms, but noting interrupted Charl Schwartzel cruising to an easy victory setting a target of -24 under par. An amazing twelve shots clear of Kristoffer Broberg in second place.

Charl has a remarkable record at this course, which is situated on the border of the Kruger National Park, he won his first European Tour title there in 2004 and has had four runner-up finishes. He said it has always been special for him;

“It’s always been a special place for me, this is where I can almost say my career started and it’s always stayed close to my heart. It’s nice to have continued my form from last week. I was saying a month and a half ago it’s been a pretty disappointing year. Slowly and surely I started to swing the club a lot better, back to how I did when I won The Masters, and I actually got excited to play again. It started at the South AFrican Open and from there got better and better. It’s been a pretty good year now!”

Sweden’s Kristoffer Broberg, four times a winner on the Challenge Tour last season, finished in second place, after  Grégory Bourdy suffered a double-bogey seven on the final hole.  Grégory had been the main challenger to Charl for the best part of the weekend, but slipped up on the last hole to give Kristoffer the second place on his own. Kristoffer was of course delighted with his first earnings on the European Tour;

“It’s amazing to get off to such a good start in The Race to Dubai in my first season as a European Tour Member and it sets me up pretty good for the new season.”

 

Marvelous Manassero Wins Barclays Soggy Singapore Open

Matteo Manassero/ Getty Images

Marvelous Matteo Manassero  the nineteen year-old from Italy won the rain affected Barclays Singapore Open, after a long hard day on the Sentosa Golf Course in soggy Singapore. Matteo beat South African Louis Oosthuizen on the third play-off hole, the par five eighteenth, with a marvelous Eagle, to win his third European Tour Trophy.

Lengthy storms on Thursday and Friday meant the third round had not been completed at the start of play on the final day, and Matteo first finished his third round with a score of -7 under par 64, to lead by two shots beginning the final round. Matteo spoke about the long day’s play;

“It’s been an extremely long day, the adrenaline kept me going and the key was starting really well this morning. Starting with some birdies gave me a lot of adrenaline to go forward. The play-off was just a great honor to play with Louis, it’s been amazing really. This year has been a tough year for me going through a few swing changes, but it has been amazing this week. I’m glad this came in such a great tournament.” 

The win for Matteo, and the resulting second place for Louis meant that the Race to Dubai title was handed  to Rory McIlroy, the Worlds number one ranked golfer, after Rory eventually finished third place alone with his last round of -6 par, 65, the best round of the day,  Rory collected ,296 for finishing in third place at the Barclays Singapore Open, took his season’s earnings to €3,696,597 and with his closest Race to Dubai rival Peter Hanson not playing again until the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Rory has now established an unassailable lead at the top of The Race to Dubai.

Rory McIlroy/ Getty Images

 

Euro Tour Down Under, ISPS Handa International, Bo Van Pelt Takes Control

Bo Van Pelt/getty images

American Bo Van Pelt took control of the ISPS Handa International at Lake Karrinyup Country Club in Perth Western Australia, in the third round. Bo holed a 60 foot birdie putt on the 18th green, for a third round score of -5 under par and a tournament total of -12 under par, to take a one shot lead into the final round.

Bo said of his monster putt on 18;

” Once in a while a hole just gets in the way.I felt like I hit a pretty good second shot, just carried about five yards further. I was just trying to get the ball down there and two-putt and get out of there, and lo and behold, it goes in the hole. There’s still a lot of golf to be played. It was just nice to finish with a birdie like that and hopefully take that into tomorrow. Jason is a great player, Grillo is playing well and he’s probably going to come out and probably shoot a low one tomorrow. You’ve got to drive the ball straight and then put the ball in position on the greens, because they have a lot of slope and they are getting firm and they are getting fast.”

Jason Dufner, the World’s Number Ten, and the highest-ranked player in the field was delighted to have given himself a chance going into Sunday. He also had a good third round, matching  Bo’s -5 under par round to sit alone in second spot, with a tournament total of  -11 under par.

” It was a nice day to get a good score and move up and have a realistic chance of not having to do anything crazy tomorrow and being in contention to try to win the tournament. Sometimes in the middle of a round, something happens that spurs you to some better play, and I got a little bit of a tough break on seven on my tee ball. Thought it would be in the fairway but hung up in the rough, which put me a good way back and I ended up getting into a bunker 70 yards or so and hit it over the back and then chipped in. So not really thinking that you’re going to make birdie; in your mind you’re almost feeling like maybe bogey might come on a pretty easy hole. Chipped in there and then hit one stone on nine and birdied 10, 11, 12.”

 Emiliano Grillo started the third round with a four shot lead, but had a poor round of +1 over par, a very costly inward nine of 37 strokes did the damage as the Qualifying School graduate hopes to cement his place in the top 115 on The Race to Dubai. Emiliano currently lies in 112th place. With a tournament total of -10 under par, and third place, Emiliano is still only two shots adrift of the lead and will be sure to contest tomorrow.

Tied in fourth place are Spain’s Alejandro Cañizares and England’s David Howell, and although the pair are five shots off the pace, they both have plenty to play for. In The Race to Dubai they are currently 70th and 71st on the list, meaning they both need a big finish to force their way into the top 60 players who will make the trip to Jumeirah Golf Estates next month.