Luiten wins Welsh Open, Lowry shares second
Holland’s Joost Luiten recovered from a poor start and overcame a nervous finish to claim his fourth European Tour title in the ISPS Handa Wales Open at Celtic Manor.
Luiten, who was fifth in the defence of his KLM Open title on home soil last week, saw his two-shot overnight lead disappear when he bogeyed the first two holes of the final round.
But the 28-year-old hit back with three birdies and one bogey on the back nine to card a closing 71 and finish 14 under par, one shot ahead of England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Ireland’s Shane Lowry.
Fleetwood had looked out of contention following a double bogey on the 13th, but then chipped in for a birdie on the 14th, holed from five feet for eagle on the next and also birdied the last three holes for a closing 67.
That left Luiten needing to par the last three holes to win and he looked to have done the hard part with a superb up and down from a greenside bunker on the 17th, only to hit an amazingly wild drive on the last.
It took several minutes for the ball to be found in dense rough but Luiten was able to hack it across the fairway and into more rough, from where he found the green with his approach and two-putted from long range.
Five players shared fourth place on 12 under, Ryder Cup debutant Jamie Donaldson carding a 67 to finish alongside Nicolas Colsaerts, Eddie Pepperell, Marc Warren, Edoardo Molinari.
