Late surge lands Davies first Tour title

Published on Sunday 21 March 2010 23:25

WELSHMAN Rhys Davies captured his first European Tour title with a brilliant display in Morocco yesterday.

The 24-year-old former Walker Cup amateur – a team-mate of Rory McIlroy in 2007 – lifted the Hassan Trophy by two shots after a closing seven-under-par 66 at Royal Dar Es Salam.

Davies trailed South African Louis Oosthuizen by three with 15 holes to play, but birdied eight of the next 11 and took the 207,666 first prize with a 25-under total of 266.

For Oosthuizen it was a fourth runners-up finish on the circuit, while Frenchman Thomas Levet, Spaniard Ignacio Garrido, Finn Mikko Ilonen and another South African Thomas Aiken shared third place five strokes further back.

Davies said: "I'm a little bit lost at the moment – this is all completely surreal to me. I didn't really think very much out there."

Told about his eight birdies from the fourth to the 14th the Bridgend golfer, who will move into the world's top 100 as a result, said: "I didn't know I did that. I just felt I could make every putt and felt in control of my swing. That was the best I've hit it all week."

Davies finished third in his last tournament in Malaysia and will be watched closely now in the year when his home country stages the Ryder Cup for the first time.

"That's way out of my equation at the moment," he said. "This is just the first win, hopefully the first of a few, and it's something really special."

Davies did not even have a card on the circuit or the second tier Challenge Tour a year ago, having twice failed to come through the Tour qualifying school. But winning a Challenge Tour in Wales to which he had received an invitation changed everything. Davies then won again to finish fourth on their money list and earn promotion without the need to go back to the school.

Now he can plan his schedule for the rest of this year and next season.

A bogey on the short second left him an uphill task, but walking off the 11th green he had turned that into a one-shot lead. It was already pretty much a two-man fight by then and Oosthuizen's eagle on the next took him back in front. But Davies rolled in a 22-footer at the 13th and went two ahead when he birdied again on the 206-yard 14th and Oosthuizen bogeyed from the sand.

Victory might have taken Oosterhuizen back into the world's top 50 a week before invitations to the Masters are handed out, but he will now have to try for that again when the Tour reaches European soil at last in Malaga this coming week.

"I am disappointed, of course," Oosthuizen said. "I just struggled with my irons all day. I didn't put the ball close enough to the pin in order to give myself chances. Rhys played brilliantly, so congratulations to him."