Frenchman Alexander Levy boosted his chances of qualifying for a Ryder Cup debut on home soil with victory in the Hassan II Trophy in Morocco.
Levy entered the final day at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam one shot off the lead, but hit the front on the third and never looked back, signing for a 70 and finishing the week at eight under.
That gave him a one-shot victory over Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, who had a birdie-birdie finish to leapfrog Swedish pair Alexander Björk and Joakim Lagergren, and Mikko Ilonen and Italian Andrea Pavan.
Two birdies in the first five holes of the final round took Levy to the top of the leaderboard, and a position which he defended staunchly from all challengers throughout a demanding final round.
Levy was matched on the front nine by playing partner Erik van Rooyen, but the Frenchman resisted the South African before fighting off the advances of Quiros, Björk, Lagergren, Ilonen and Pavan over the course of the back nine to register the fifth win of his European Tour career.
The victory comes in Levy’s 138th appearance on Tour, and provides the perfect momentum as he goes in search of a successful defence of the Volvo China Open next week. It is also the continuation of some excellent form this season, with three top tens in his other five events keeping him in contention to provide someone of the home fans to cheer for at the Ryder Cup in Paris in September. The Frenchman has now moved to ninth position in both the Race to Dubai and the European points List for Ryder Cup qualification.
Levy said: “This feels so good. I did a really good job today. I played an amazing game, and I’m so happy to win this trophy. I need to improve my game and I need to work a lot to even think about the Ryder Cup. We have a lot of good players in Europe, so it will be tough to make the team.”
Meanwhile, in the Lalla Meryem Cup, the Ladies European Tour event played at the same course, Sweden’s Jenny Haglund made a birdie on the second play-off hole to triumph. Haglund held off the challenge of Australia’s Sarah Kemp and the 2017 champion Klara Spilkova of the Czech Republic to claim her first LET title after the trio finished on three under. The leading British player was England’s Florentyna Parker on two over.