Thorbjorn Olesen survived a final round fight back from David Horsey to secure a three-stroke victory at the Turkish Airlines Open – the first event of the European Tour’s Final Series.
With the tournament robbed of some of its superstar names following fears over security in the region, world No.92 Olsen took the most of the opportunity to bag the biggest win of his career.
Leading by seven shots after 54 holes, following rounds of 65, 62 and 68, the 26-year-old Dane’s march to victory should have been a formality, but a spirited final round from Horsey, and China’s Haotong Li, both of whom closed with 65s, saw Olsen forced to pull out all the stops to secure his fourth win on the top tour.
The Dane saw his overnight advantage briefly cut to one during the final day in Antalya, but three birdies towards on the back nine, saw him close out the title with a two-under-par 69, and a 20-under-par total.
Horsey birdied four of his opening seven holes and drained a 30-footer at the ninth to reach the turn in 29, as Olesen cancelled out his gain at the fifth with a three-putt bogey at the ninth. Heading to the back nine two strokes clear, Olesen temporarily saw his lead halved when Horsey posted a birdie at the 12th. Olesen restored his cushion by getting up-and-down from the greenside bunker at the same hole, before extending his advantage with a tap-in birdie at the 14th and a close-range gain at the next.
Li surged up the leaderboard with four consecutive birdies from the 13th, and moved in to a share of second when Horsey made a three-putt bogey at the 16th. Olesen posted his first bogey of the day at the same hole to see his lead cut to three, but completed his final two holes in regulation to seal the win. Olesen has now won European Tour events in four of the past five seasons, and his latest victory earns him £950,000.
A rising star of European golf when finishing sixth in Masters at Augusta in 2013, Olesen career has been somewhat stop-start due to injuries and loss of form, but the status in which he is held was demonstrated by Darren Clarke’s decision to take him along to September’s Ryder Cup as an observer. And with fellow Dane Thomas Bjorn regarded as a shoe-in to lead Europe in Paris in 2018, Olsen will be looking to build on the early promise he has shown to date.
“This means a lot,” Olesen said. “It has been a bad spell for me, the last three or four months. I played well at the start of the season and felt like I had a good chance to actually make the Ryder Cup team. In the summer there, I just got into a bad spell and played badly in the big events. Coming back here and then winning such a big tournament is huge. I feel like my game is good enough to compete in all the biggest tournaments.”
He added: “It was difficult to be there when you know you’ve been really close to actually making the team, but I tried to learn as much as possible and take it as an experience. It gave me a lot of motivation, definitely, to make it in two years’ time, but also it gave me motivation to just go home and work harder and try to win more tournaments and try to play better golf.”
Further down the leaderboard, Masters’ champion Danny Willett’s poor run of form continued, as he missed the chance to move back top of the Race to Dubai standings after finishing tied 68th. His £10,000 prize failed to make much of a dent in Henrik Stenson’s lead at the top of the money list, and the Swede will be very much in the driving seat for the title going into the season-ending events in Sun City and Dubai.