Teen Hojgaard beats Walters in UK play-off

GOLF: DANISH teenager Rasmus Hojgaard defeated Justin Walters in a play-off at the ISPS Handa UK Championship to secure his second European Tour title in just his 15th start.

Hojgaard won with a par on the second extra hole at The Belfry after he and overnight leader Walters had finished tied on 14 under par.

The 19-year-old fell two shots off the pace when he bogeyed the 12th, but birdied the 14th and 16th and holed from 10 feet for eagle on the 17th, to complete a superb closing 65.

Walters, who began the day with a two-shot lead, ran up a triple-bogey seven on the eighth after hitting his tee shot out of bounds, but recovered superbly and birdied three of the last five holes to force a play-off.

The 39-year-old bravely holed from 10 feet for par on the first extra hole but was unable to repeat the feat from a similar distance at the second time of asking after carving his approach wide of the green from a bunker. Hojgaard only secured his European Tour card at the qualifying school in November and won a play-off in the Mauritius Open the next month.

CYCLING: Britain’s Adam Yates was edged out in a three-man sprint as France’s Julian Alaphilippe won stage two of the Tour de France to take the yellow jersey.

Mitchelton-scott rider Yates caught a two-man breakaway of Alaphilippe and Switzerland’s Marc Hirschi on the final climb with 10 kilometres to go in Nice and the trio worked as a team to hold off the peloton. They were almost caught as they played cat and mouse with the finish line beckoning, but Deceuninck-quickStep rider Alaphilippe’s final burst saw him pip Hirschi (Sunweb), with Yates crossing one second behind.

Alaphilippe took the yellow jersey from stage-one winner Alexander Kristoff and Yates moved up to second in the general classification, four seconds behind.

Yates made his break to catch the leading pair on the final ascent with 11 kilometres to go.

“I jumped across to Alaphilippe and Hirschi and then we started working,” he said. “In the end I was never going to win the sprint, but it’s been a good stage two and I’m pretty happy with that.’’

Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet (CCC Team) finished fourth.