Hamburg's Sven Struver showed that Bernhard Langer and the naturalised Alex Cejka are not the only German golfers who can win important titles in Europe, when he captured the Sun Dutch Open at Hilversum yesterday. The 29-year-old, whose father and uncle are both club professionals, had two eagles in a closing round of 66 to beat England's Russell Claydon by three shots, with Roger Chapman and Argentinian Angel Cabrera sharing third place on 271.
Struver, who began the week in 125th place in the Volvo Rankings collected a cheque for Stg £116,660 for his 18 under par total of 266. It was his second success on the PGA European Tour, the German making his breakthrough in South Africa last year when he won the Alfred Dunhill PGA Championship over 54 holes with a last round 63.
But now he has followed his idol Langer on to the list of Dutch title-holders, securing his future with two eagle threes in the five under par final round that enabled him to equal the record aggregate for the course set by Mark McNulty last year.
The second of those eagles, from 25 feet at the 12th gave him a three shot advantage for the last six holes, and he never looked in danger of losing it, especially when Claydon, who has now been second five times as a pro, hit his tee shot into the woods at the 17th.
Philip Walton was comfortably Ireland's top man when he shot 69 for an eight under par 276 to be joint 14th. It was a highly satisfactory performance after being three over par after his first three holes on the opening day, and earned the Malahide professional a cheque for Stg £10,290.
"I have to get off to a better start and now I am looking for a big improvement in the Volvo Scandinavian Masters this week," he said.
Walton was still unable to avoid an early error yesterday, but sandwiched three putts at the long fourth with birdies at the third, where he holed from 15 feet, and the short fifth where he was down from 20 feet. He added a birdie four at the 12th by chipping stiff from the back of the green, but was disappointed with his play over the remaining holes.
Walton drove into a bunker at the 16th to drop his second shot, and though he got it back immediately by holing from 12 feet at the 17th, he failed to get the birdie four on offer at the last, by chipping weakly.
Paul McGinley's week ended on a disappointing note with two closing rounds of 72, especially as he was hoping for much better after and eagle-birdie-birdie to reach eight under after only six holes on the last day. The Dubliner holed from 12 feet for his eagle at the fourth, and added birdies from four and eight feet on the next two greens.
But as in the third round he ran into trouble over the remaining outward holes. He missed the greens at the seventh and eighth to drop shots, and could make nothing of the inward half where he drove behind trees at both the par five 12th and 18th, and took six after having to chip out sideways. He ended with a four under par 280 and took 33rd place to earn a prize of Stg £5,390.
Ronan Rafferty also shot 72, although in his case it represented something of a recovery for he started with a double bogey six, and took 40 strokes for the outward half. A birdie at the short 10th and an eagle three at the 12th helped to repair the damage and the Ulsterman was home in 32 for a one under 283 that gave him 43rd position. Fellow Ulsterman Raymond Burns who now has the latest Seve Ballesteros caddie Julian Phillips working his bag for a three-week stint, ended his run of failures, by scoring 69-75 at the weekend for a three over total of 287. He was 59th. The changes in the Ryder Cup qualifying table were marginal. Mark James who ended with a 65 to be seventh, moved up from 15th to 14th, and David Gilford who was ninth, improved from 19th to 18th. Sam Torrance remained in 13th place after a 68 for 275 gave him 13th position.
