They came to watch Masters champion Sergio Garcia confirm his position as pre-tournament favourite, but spectators at the BMW International Masters in Germany came away having witnessed the world’s 837th’s best player, Argentina’s Andres Romero, take the spoils in Munich.
The 36 year old had fallen on such lean times that he had to rely on a sponsor’s invitation to make the field, but the man whose only previous European Tour win came in the Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship of Europe in 2007, enjoyed a welcome return to form, firing rounds 68 and 65 over the weekend to seal a one-shot victory over Garcia, Richard Bland and Thomas Detry.
It was a tense and thrilling finale at München Eichenried, as all four players shared the lead with just three holes to play. Romero’s round caught fire as he followed up his first birdie at the eighth with another at the ninth, then picked up three in a row from the 13th hole before the other challengers began to stumble.
Detry missed a crucial birdie opportunity to force the issue at the last, making a par five after his second shot ended up in the hospitality lounges. Garcia was left to rue a mishit putt from three feet as he bogeyed the 16th, while Bland dropped a shot at the par-three 17th.
After Romero had signed for a seven under 65 to set the target at 17 under, Garcia and Bland both required an eagle at the last to take it to extra holes. Bland’s eagle putt from 12 feet narrowly slipped by, while Garcia missed the green with his second and pitched to within two feet, and they both signed for a birdie at the last and a pair of 69s, handing Romero – playing in his first appearance on the continent this season – a second European Tour title.
“I’m really happy, after ten years without winning on the European Tour. I haven’t been in that position for a long time, so it felt a little funny. I enjoy it here and I want to say thanks to the people at BMW because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have any category now, and this is going to be life-changing.”
Garcia, whose form with the putter went cold on Sunday, said: “It was a good week and I obviously fell just short. I felt like I played well enough to win, but there were a couple of missed putts here and there today, and some really good putts that didn’t want to go in. So it was difficult to get anything going. And then, unfortunately that chip on 18 looked pretty good, but it just missed on the right side.”
Bland, who missed a large chunk of the early part of the season through injury, and was enduring a torrid run of results, said: “The form that I’ve been showing the last three or four months, if someone offered me second place or a putt to make a playoff on 18, I’d probably snap their hand off. Having said that, I’m pretty gutted. I gave it a good run, but I just got caught in between clubs on 17, and it was the only shot I didn’t commit to all day. And even the poor shots that I hit today, I was committed to them, and that was the only one I just didn’t commit to.”
The 44 year old from Hampshire, whose second-placed finished moved him up 98 places in the money list to 79th, added: “I’m proud of the two shots I hit on the last, and I just didn’t quite hole the putts, but I’ll come back next week and try again.”
