Molinari goes from nearly man to winner with Wentworth triumph

● Italian survives late scare to beat Mcilroy to the title – and puts himself in contention for a place in September’s Ryder Cup clash

0 Francesco Molinari sprays the champagne after winning his first BMW PGA Championship, a year after finishing second.

Asked about the prospects of a third Ryder Cup appearance at a venue where he has finished runner-up three times in the French Open, Molinari added: “I was too far back to seriously think about it until this week, but now it’s there and on a course that I love and where I have almost as good a record as I do here. I would love to be there.”

Mcilroy had enjoyed a threeshot lead at halfway following rounds of 67 and 65, but struggled to a 71 on Saturday and rescued a 70 on Sunday with birdies on the last two holes.

The 29-year-old had worked on changes to his swing since missing the cut in the Players Championship and said: “I think when you’re working through a bit of a swing change or a swing tweak, it takes more than a week’s work to try to bed it in and this is my first competitive start since trying to rectify things. It’s close. I’ve given myself a great chance here this week. I didn’t quite pull it off but it’s not far away. I get a bit down on myself because my expectations are high and, with a 36-hole lead, I should have closed it out.

“It’s disappointing but that’s not taking anything away from Francesco. He played a great weekend and bogey-free around here is some playing.

“He deserved the win. I just need to do a little bit more work and I’m looking forward to getting right back at it at Memorial next week.”

Bjerregaard’s closing 65 equalled the lowest score of the week. Scotland’s Katie Reid took Great Britain’s second medal of the Canoe Sprint World Cup in Duisburg, withbronzeinthewomen’s C1 200 metres.

The 23-year-old from Dunfermline only took up the sport in 2014 as part of British Canoeing’s Girls4gold initiative, targeting more women into the 200m canoe events in advance of their inclusion in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

This was Reid’s second time on the podium at this level with a bronze back in her debut senior season in 2016. Since then the event has gone from strength to strength and after a sub 48 second personal best last week and a ninth place in the final at the opening World Cup of the season in Szeged, Reid stepped things up again yesterday.

Canadian Laurence Vin- cente-lapointe was the clear winner, followed by Russia’s Kseniia Kurach, but Reid held on to fend off a strong challenge on the line from Indonsia’s Riska Andriyani and home crowd favourite Lisa Jahn.

“I am over the moon,” said Reid. “It has been a really good World Cup two weeks. We have worked really hard over the winter, so to come here and get a medal this early in the season is great. It was such tight racing but I really enjoyed it – it was great fun!

“My plan was to get a really good start and then transition well and relax. Training has been going really well, so it is about trusting that and just doing what you do on a daily basis. I still have a lot to gain on the start but I am happy with the rest of the race.

“We still haven’t done any speed endurance work yet, so we will go home now and focus on that which is when the back end will become a lot stronger.”