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Around The World

Claiming his first European Tour victory since his glorious four-win breakout year of 2012, 26-year-old Branden Grace played spectacular, then steady golf en route to a wire-to-wire victory at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.  Grace opened the week with a dazzling bogey-free 62 at the Leopard Creek Country Club, then added a Friday 66 to take a five-shot halfway lead over Francesco Molinari.  He stumbled slightly on Saturday, however, posting an even-par 72 and allowing several players back into the mix, notably Molinari (whose own uninspiring 70 left him three back) and Denmark’s 23-year-old Lucas Bjerregaard, whose steadily decreasing rounds of 68-67-66 stood him only one behind Grace.  With Molinari double-bogeying the 3rd on Sunday (and eventually tumbling to a 76), it quickly became a two-man race, with Grace posting two early birdies to briefly widen his lead.  Having bogeyed the 1st, Bjerregaard birdied the 6th to pull back within three, but a difficult chip which trickled into a greenside pond led to a triple-bogey at the par-3 7th, and then the bottom fell out.  Bjerregaard began the back nine with a double-bogey at the 10th and a quadruple-bogey eight at the 11th, eventually shooting a back nine 50 to post an 89, dropping him from second all the way to a tie for 49th in just 12 holes.  His collapse also cleared the way nicely for Grace, who methodically marched home with a 68, good enough to run away from 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen and win by seven………………It took an Australian record seven extra holes to do it but PGA Tour veteran Greg Chalmers won his second Australian PGA Championship by beating both Adam Scott and Wade Ormsby in sudden death.  The 41-year-old Chalmers began the final round fully seven shots behind the leaders but carded a tournament low 64 on Sunday to roar back into the hunt.  Beating the field by four strokes, Chalmers finished two hours before both Scott and Ormsby, who each closed with a 71 to deadlock the trio on 277.  Ormsby departed the playoff on the third extra hole after failing to match his opponents’ birdies, leaving Chalmers to emerge victorious when Scott three-putted for bogey four holes later.  Indeed, the putter was truly the story for the world number three, as Scott missed four potentially clinching birdies during the seven extra holes – though as he observed afterwards, few of them were of the short, highly makeable variety.  New Zealand’s Michael Hendry took solo fourth, two shots out of the playoff………………Few Western golfers have enjoyed as much success in the Far East as Lee Westwood, and the 41-year-old Englishman added further to that ledger at the Thailand Golf Championship, where he closed with a Sunday-low 67 to beat Martin Kaymer and third-round leader Marcus Fraser by one.  Coming to the close of a disappointing season in which his only previous win had come in Malaysia back in April, Westwood opened his week with rounds of 70-71-72, good enough to stand only two behind Fraser in a week when steady winds combined with a tough course set-up to produce higher-than-normal scoring.  Sunday would see Westwood, Fraser and Kaymer all remain right on the lead with the trio standing tied through the first 16 holes.  Westwood, for his par, carded steady pars and the 17th and 18th, while Kaymer, the reigning U.S. Open champion bogeyed the 17th.  That left it up to Fraser to keep pace at the last but under perhaps the greatest pressure of his career, he missed a short par putt to hand Westwood the victory.  India’s Anirban Lahiri closed with a 73 to tie for sixth, allowing American David Lipsky to clinch the Asian Order of Merit title even with the inaugural Dubai Open left to play.
Posted on Sunday, December 14, 2014 at 05:16PM by Registered CommenterDaniel | Comments Off