Teen Rasmus wins Belfry battle against Tour veteran

THE six-week UK summer swing on the European Tour ended on a resoundingly positive note at the Belfry yesterday with an exciting play-off victory for brilliant teenager, Rasmus Hojgaard in the ISPS Handa UK Championship.

Alongside Sam Horsfield from England, the 19-year-old Dane has undoubtedly been the star of the swing as he won on the second extra hole, outlasting 39-year-old South African Justin Walters, whose wait for a first win goes on following his 227th tour event.

By contrast, this was Hojgaard’s second victory in just 15 starts and completes an impressive series of results during the UK sequence. In his four appearances, he finished 2nd, 6th, 3rd and now first to edge Horsfield — who won two events but didn’t play last week — in the mini order of merit.

Walters, who led after each of the first three rounds but ran up a costly triple-bogey at the eighth yesterday, was not the only one who left with regrets.

Former World No1 Martin Kaymer looked on course for his first victory in six years but the chipping deficiencies that have long afflicted the German cost him dearly at the par-five 17th, where he ran up a fatal bogey. The tour now moves on to another former Ryder Cup venue in Valderrama, Spain, before returning at the end of next month for a four-week UK autumn encore.

At the FedEx Cup play-offs in Chicago, Tiger Woods completed a miserable week with a 71 to finish well off the pace in what will be his last competitive round before the US Open next month. Rory McIlroy, whose wife Erica is due to give birth to their first child this week, began three shots off the pace set by Hideki Matsuyama and Dustin Johnson.