Higgo’ s ace on way to another victory

South African golfer Garrick Higgo raced away to his second European Tour win in three weeks with an ace among a brilliant final round 64 in the Canary Islands Championship.

The 21-year-old from Johannesburg won in Gran Canaria two weeks ago and for a long time was threatening the record -29 winning score set by compatriot Ernie Els at the Johnnie Walker Classic in 2003.

His hole-in-one at the 158-yard seventh hole – a nine-iron that dropped into the hole on the first bounce – just about ended the tournament as a contest. The left-hander eventually came home with a 27-under aggregate of 257, six shots clear.

For the Scots quartet in Tenerife, just one par round from each of them was enough to knock them out of contention. The closest after 54 holes, Perthshire’s Calum Hill, had been second, three back of Higgo, going into the final round.

However, although Hill did reduce the margin to two early on, he never recovered from successive sixes at the third and fourth holes. The three strokes lost there and Higgo’s ace meant the margin was eight after seven holes. Hill eventually settled for a par round of 71 and a share of 12th place.

Drumoig’s Connor Syme had his par round on Saturday but fought back for a 66 on the final day, pushing him up to join his countrymen on 17-under.

“I am pleased with my scores, though I didn’t play that great,” he said. “It was a bit more of a grind today. But to shoot a decent score in that wind and not having my best stuff, it was a good result.”

Syme has had a decent run in the Canaries this last three weeks as he prepares to come back to the UK for the Betfred British Masters at the Belfry this week.

“I have putted a lot better these past few weeks and I have been working with Phil Kenyon,” he said. “It’s made a big difference and also given me a lot of confidence. I’ve also done a lot of swing work with my dad.

“For three to four weeks at the start of the year I struggled with my shoulder before Dubai. I just found it really hard to get ready, so these latest results are the result of my hard work.

“I’ve had a couple of missed cuts but my game hasn’t been that far away and that’s shown over these past few weeks.”

Higgo will make his first visit to the Belfry this week and says the key will be “managing yourself well”, with the tournament starting on the unusual day of a Wednesday.

Syme played with Higgo in the final group of the South African’s first win two weeks ago and said he was playing “incredible golf ”.

“Garrick is unbelievable,” he said. “I am one not to be looking at scoreboards but I did have a glance at the 16th. I was thinking I had a chance if I got to 20-under

“A couple of weeks ago it was obvious he’s going to go on to big things.”

Higgo is the youngest to three wins in modern European Tour history. He won the Open de Portugal last September for his first and this latest equalled the quickest to a trio of victories on Tour, just 26 events. That record is held by none other than Tiger Woods.

Higgo now moves to fifth on the Race to Dubai.

Richie Ramsay, who also fell away with a 71 on Saturday, finished with a three-under 69 to share 23rd with fellow Scot Grant Forrest, who had a week’s best 66 on the final day.