Matthew Fitzpatrick makes timely race to Dubai move with play-off victory in Switzerland

Sport360 staff 15:12 11/09/2017
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  • Matthew Fitzpatrick

    Matthew Fitzpatrick beat Scott Hend in a dramatic play-off to win the Omega European Masters in Switzerland.

    The 2016 DP World Tour Championship winner entered the final round four shots behind Australian Hend but produced a closing 64 to get to 14 under and take the contest to extra holes in the Swiss Alps.

    Hend – who lost to Alex Noren in a play-off at this event last season – missed a six-foot putt for victory on the second extra hole but found sand off the tee on the next trip up the 18th and after he flew the green with his second, a par was enough to seal victory for Fitzpatrick.

    “I’m delighted,” he told Sky Sports. “It’s one that I’ve always wanted to win. I love playing this golf course, from the first ever year I came as an invite in 2014 it’s one that has really stood out on my schedule and I always want to come back and play.”

    Fitzpatrick made four birdies and a bogey in his first eight holes to catch up to Hend and when he added further gains on the 10th, 14th, 15th and 16th, the Ryder Cup star held a two-shot lead.

    Hend then hit back with a birdie on the 15th and a Fitzpatrick bogey on the 17th set up the dramatic finish.

    England’s Tyrrell Hatton birdied four of his last six holes to finish at 11 under alongside Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti, with another Englishman in Lee Slattery two shots further back.

    Scot Duncan Stewart was then at eight under, with former world number one Lee Westwood finishing at level par in his 500th European Tour event.

    Englishman Tommy Fleetwood remains at the head of the Race to Dubai rankings with 3,771,122 points, while Spaniard Sergio Garcia is in second with a season-tally of 2,799,255 points and his young compatriot Jon Rahm sits in third spot on 2,761,857, with Dubai based Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello in fourth place with 2,124,686 points.

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