Golf: England's Paul Casey won the Volvo Golf Champions in Bahrain with a six-foot par putt on the final green. Casey, at ninth in the world the highest-ranked player in the field, was level with Peter Hanson with one to play, but the Swede failed to get up and down from sand.
He dropped into a share of second place with Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez as a result, while Scot Stephen Gallacher was fourth.
Ireland's Darren Clarke was one off the pace overnight but carded a disappointing 73 to drop back to 14 under. Pádraig Harrington and Peter Lawrie both signed for 71 to move to five under and four under respectively, but Michael Hoey dropped back to two under after a 77.
Casey's 68 gave him the first prize of €276,450 and saw him finish on a 20-under-par total of 268. It was his first victory in 20 months.
“It feels fantastic," said Casey afterwards,
"the most important thing to me is winning and that was huge. The goal is obviously the majors, but how are you going to win major championships if you can’t win regular events?”
Third on the world rankings before he tore a rib muscle practising for the 2009 Open, Casey moves back into the top six and will be fifth if Phil Mickelson finished worse than second in San Diego later in the day.
“I’m going in the right direction,” he added.
Course-record rounds of 63 from Dane Soren Kjeldsen and England’s Richard Finch flattered to deceive in the desert because by the time the leaders came to the back nine a strong wind had picked up.
“We thought it was going to be benign, but we faced a course that was treacherous,” said Casey.
The Englishman got his nose in front with an 18-foot birdie putt on the 15th, but had his only bogey of the last two rounds on the next.
Jimenez’s chances were alive again when he birdied the last and Hanson bogeyed it, but Casey kept his nerve and got up and down from the rough by the green to squeeze home.
“I was lucky to have a putt to win. Peter was phenomenal and didn’t make any mistakes really until the last.”
Not quite true. Hanson was also left to rue a missed three-footer on the long 14th.
Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour Volvo Golf Champions, Royal Golf Club, Kingdom of Bahrain, Bahrain
(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 72):
268Paul Casey 67 67 66 68
269Peter Hanson (Swe) 66 67 67 69, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 65 69 67
270Stephen Gallacher 70 64 69 67
271Robert Karlsson (Swe) 69 67 69 66
272Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 69 68 70 65, Johan Edfors (Swe) 64 71 68 69
274Richie Ramsay 72 68 67 67, Alexander Noren (Swe) 67 70 67 70, Darren Clarke 69 65 67 73, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 68 65 71 70, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 67 69 71 67
275Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 70 69 68 68, James Kingston (Rsa) 67 67 67 74, Anders Hansen (Den) 68 68 69 70, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 67 70 66 72, David Horsey 69 70 65 71, Richard Green (Aus) 67 70 72 66, Todd Hamilton (USA) 70 71 64 70
276Francesco Molinari (Ita) 66 69 69 72, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 71 65 70 70, Richard Finch 71 71 71 63, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 70 67 68 71
277Martin Wiegele (Aut) 71 70 72 64, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 71 73 63, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 68 71 68 70, Ian Poulter 72 69 68 68, Tano Goya (Arg) 75 67 68 67, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 66 71 70 70
278Christian Nilsson (Swe) 68 70 70 70, Gary Orr 71 70 69 68, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 67 69 73 69, Paul Lawrie 68 73 72 65, Rafael Cabrera Bello (Spa) 69 68 70 71, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 73 67 67 71, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 72 67 69 70
279Andrew Dodt (Aus) 69 69 71 70, Mark Foster 69 70 67 73, Graeme Storm 66 70 73 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 70 73 67
280Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 70 69 70 71, Oliver Wilson 71 71 66 72, Bradley Dredge 70 67 69 74
281Robert Jan Derksen (Ned) 70 71 68 72, Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 69 72 72, Anthony Wall 69 70 71 71, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 75 67 69 70, Soren Hansen (Den) 71 68 73 69, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 68 69 73 71, Kenneth Ferrie 71 69 71 70, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 65 75 73
282Danny Lee (Nzl) 70 72 68 72, David Dixon 71 66 72 73, Phillip Price 73 69 71 69, Oskar Henningsson (Swe) 72 68 71 71, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 69 71 72, Paul Broadhurst 69 68 75 70
283 Pádraig Harrington 70 69 73 71
284Steve Webster 68 68 70 78, Colin Montgomerie 72 69 72 71, Peter Lawrie 68 74 71 71
285Scott Strange (Aus) 68 71 76 70
286Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 67 73 75 71, Michael Hoey 72 69 68 77
287Mark Brown (Nzl) 71 69 76 71
290Christian Cevaer (Fra) 71 71 75 73
291Markus Brier (Aut) 71 71 78 71
