Dutch of class from Darius makes win go like clockwork
Holland’s Darius van Driel yesterday shot the lowest final 36 holes of the 2019 European Challenge Tour season to win the Rolex Trophy at Golf Club de Geneve.
At the halfway stage, the Dutchman was seven strokes off the lead, but recorded rounds of 63-64, coming from four shots behind on the final day, to win his second Challenge Tour title in 12 months in Switzerland.
Van Driel, who won the Euram Bank Open last season, signed for an eight under par final round – the lowest finish by a winner on the Challenge Tour in 2019 – to claim a one-shot victory over Northern Ireland’s Cormac Sharvin.
For a spell it looked as though Scotland’s Calum Hill could land his third title of the season and instant promotion to join the big guns on the European Tour.
However, his 67 saw him finish on 20-under-par, in a share of third place alongside England’s Richard Bland, Portugal’s Ricardo Santos and Van Driel’s fellow Dutchman Daan Huizing
“It feels amazing,” said Van Driel. “You have no idea how much this means to me.
“I was struggling with the putter over the first two days, then I made a few putts yesterday and that got me rolling. I’m happy I continued that today.
“I holed my nine iron on 14 for eagle and that’s when I started to look at the leaderboard, which might have been the wrong thing to do. I played a little too carefully over the last few holes and I was happy to close it out in the end.
“This is huge for me. I came close to winning a couple of times but couldn’t finish it off. To pull off the win shows me that I can do it. I still have a feeling that I haven’t reached levels of my game that I want to, so there is still lots of room for improvement, but I really needed this win.”