Bezuidenhout bags Leopard Creek title as Sharvin shines
CORMAC SHARVIN recorded his best finish since August when he claimed 25th behind Christiaan Bezuidenhout in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.
Winner of the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama last year and 38th on his recent Masters debut, the South African (26) showed he is a big game hunter when he carded a three-under par 69 to win (€252,639) by four strokes from Poland’s Adrian Meronk, up-and-coming South African star Jayden Schaper, England’s Richard Bland and American Sean Crocker on 14-under par.
Sharvin (28) made the level-par cut on the mark, then carded a four-under 68 before closing with a 74 in a twoclub wind to tie for 25th (€14,340) on two-under and record his best result since he tied for 19th in the English Championship at Hanbury Manor in August.
As for Bezuidenhout, he followed three early birdies with three dropped shots in two holes on the front nine before making three critical birdies on the back nine to clinch his second win this year after claiming the Dimension Data Pro-Am on the Sunshine Tour in February.
“I’m really pleased I pulled it off,” said delighted Bezuidenhout, whose second European Tour win moves him to ninth in the Race to Dubai behind leader Patrick Reed.
“Leopard Creek has always been a special place for me, and the golf course this week was immaculate. You don’t get much better than this. I’ve always wanted to win this tournament.”
The highest-ranked player in the field at 61st in the world, Bezuidenhout thought he might be out of the running after he double-bogeyed the seventh and bogeyed the eighth.
But he recovered with birdies at the 11th, 14th and 15th as Meronk shot 76 and Schaper (19), who briefly took the lead on the front nine, triple-bogeyed the 10th and came home in 40.
“I thought after that double bogey on seven it would be tough to come back from there,” Bezuidenhout added. “It was tough out there. We played in a two-club wind that was swirling all over the place.
Clever
“You stood over your ball, and it was downwind, and then when you hit, it was suddenly into the wind. The pins were also tucked away on the greens. I just tried to play clever golf today.”
Bezuidenhout will return to action alongside Sharvin and Clandeboye’s Jonathan Caldwell in this week’s South African Open at the Gary Player Country Club in Sun City.
But the European Tour is also in action in Dubai, where The Island’s Gavin Moynihan and Royal Dublin’s Niall Kearney join Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Danny Willett in the Golf in Dubai Championship.
The event, which starts on Wednesday on the Fire Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates, is a curtain-raiser for the next week’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
On the Ladies European Tour, Denmark’s Emily Kristine Pedersen clinched her third win in-a-row and her fourth of the season with a four-stroke win in the Andalucia Costa del Sol Open de Espana.
The Copenhagen star (24) carded a six-under 66 at Real Club de Golf Guadalmina to win on 15-under from Spain’s Nuria Iturrioz and top the capture €90,000 top prize and top the Race to the Costa Del Sol standings.
The Dane turned in one-under to extend her one-shot overnight lead to three shots, then birdied the 12th, 14th, 16th, 17th and 18th.
Iturrioz shot 69 to finish second on 11-under with Spanish amateur Ana Pelaez third on seven-under after a final round 67.
Leona Maguire and Stephanie Meadow return to action in the Volunteers of America Classic in Texas.
Neither has qualified for next week’s US Women’s Open but with only the top 60 in the points list make the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship, 61st ranked Maguire needs a strong performance in Dallas to join 35th Meadow in the field at Tiburon Golf Club from December 17-20.