Maiden win for Koepka in Turkey

BELEK (Turkey): American Brooks Koepka guaranteed himself a 2015 Masters invitation by capturing the Turkish Airlines Open in Belek on Sunday.

Koepka, 24 came from two shots behind to shoot a final round seven under par 65 and claim a maiden European Tour title by one shot with a 17-under par tally on the Montgomerie Maxx Royal course.

The Florida-born golfer claimed a first European Tour victory in his 27th Tour start to deny England’s Ian Poulter who shot a five-under par 67 to finish second on 16-under par.

“I feel like I’ve been playing really well and I’ve been knocking on the door, and these last maybe two, three months, I’ve been very close over here and in the States,” he said.

“I also felt like I should have won a couple. But I’ve been knocking on the door and I’ve learned something every time, and used that today. I was very relaxed, very calm today. It showed I guess.”

Victory will lift the current World number 61 ranked golfer to inside the top-35 on the rankings and the assurance of ending the year among the elite the top-50 and with a first reward of an invitation from Augusta National.

“I’ve kind of had Augusta on the schedule since playing in the US Open this year,” he said.

“So that invitation is going to be nice and I was actually told in the locker room, I didn’t even know at the time.

“But yes, definitely looking forward to that. That will be great as growing up, watching that tournament, has always been special.”

Koepka, who won four times on the secondary Challenge Tour, collected a f irst prize cheque of 930,740 euros that has seen him jump from 43rd to sixth on the Race to Dubai while he is now hot favourite to be named European Tour Rookie of the Year.

Poulter secured his best finish all season but was left lamenting having missing a seven-foot birdie putt on the final green that would have sent the event into a play-off. - AFP