Fleetwood comes from behind to win Nedbank Challenge in play-off
- 17 Nov 2019
Tommy Fleetwood made three eagles before winning a sudden death play-off in the Nedbank golf Challenge at the Gary Player Country Club on Sunday.
The Englishman fired a final round of seven-under-par 65 to finish tied on a 12-under total of 276 with Sweden’s Marcus Kinhult, who shot 68.
Fleetwood made a par on the first extra hole to win $2.5 million -- the biggest first prize in the history of the European Tour -- after starting the final round six behind overnight leader Zander Lombard.
It was the biggest comeback win of the season and lifted Fleetwood into second place on the Race to Dubai, which ends with the Tour championship in Dubai, starting on Thursday.
Fleetwood and Kinhult pulled away from what at one stage was a crowded leaderboard as other contenders fell away in a swirling wind which added to the difficulty of the longest course on the European Tour.
Race to Dubai order of merit leader Bernd Wiesberger of Austria tied for third with Australia’s Jason Scrivener and Thomas Detry of Belgium, four strokes behind the leaders. Wiesberger and Scrivener both shot 70, while Detry, who started the round one behind Lombard, had a 74.
Elsewhere, Harris English closed with back-to-back birdies, the last of them a 25-foot chip-in to seize a one-stroke lead after Saturday’s second round of the USPGA Mayakoba Classic.
English fired a bogey-free seven-under par 64 at Playa del Carmen, Mexico, to stand on 13-under 129 after 36 holes with Vaughn Taylor second on 130 and Brendon Todd another stroke adrift.
All play on Thursday was washed out by rain so those making the cut will try to complete 36 holes on Sunday but are faced with a likely Monday finish.
English seeks his third tour title and the first since he won the 2013 Mayakoba Classic by four strokes over compatriot Brian Stuard.
The American has produced three top-six finishes in four starts during the beginning of the 2019-20 USPGA campaign, sharing third at the Greenbrier and sixth at the Sanderson Farms Championship in September and fourth at last month’s Houston Open.
English made three birdies in a row between the second and fourth holes, added another at the sixth and began the back nine with another at the par-3 10th.
That set the stage for his closing birdies at 17 and 18, the latter from just off the green.
Korean teenager Joohyung Kim on Sunday become the second-youngest winner on the Asian Tour when he won the shortened Panasonic Open in India by one stroke ahead of local challengers Shiv Kapur and Chikkarangappa S.
The 17-year-old, who was making just his third start on the Tour this year, fired a seven-under-par 65 in the third and final round at the 54-hole, $400,000 tournament in Gurgaon near New Delhi to clinch the title.
Kapur had a share of the overnight lead with Australia’s Terry Pilkadaris but was let down by a costly double-bogey seven on his closing hole.
Pilkadaris finished fourth after carding a 71, while Indonesia’s Rory Hie, Chinese Taipei’s Hung Chien-yao and India’s Vikrant Chopra were tied fifth.
The Asian Tour event was shortened to 54 holes amid a severe and toxic smog enveloping northern India.
Agencies
