Top-10 finish for Richie Ramsay in Dubai after closing 64

Richie Ramsay lines up his birdie putt at the last as he closed with a 64 in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic. Picture: Getty Images

The Aberdonian carded matching halves of 32 in a bogey-free closing effort on the Majlis Course for a 16-under-par 272 total, finishing joint-sixth with 12 others in the $3 million event.

Ramsay had started the day in joint-49th but produced a brilliant performance to comfortably record his best performance in this tournament, having failed to finish better than 31st in eight previous appearances.

“To have a round like that so early in the season is big for me because I’m not an early-season player,” said Ramsay after securing a pay-day of around £50,000 as he ended up seven shots behind Li.

Richie Ramdsay tees off at the 18th on the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club. Picture; Getty Images

“I played very similar to some of the rounds last week in Abu Dhabi (where he tied for 40th behind Tommy Fleetwood), but today was the first time I’ve been able to make some putts from 10 to 12 feet and, due to the greens being so good, you can see why the scoring is so low.

“If you hit your putt on the line, it tracks absolutely perfect. They are fast, but from eight feet in you can be quite aggressive.”

The 34-year-old sparked his surge up the leaderboard with back-to-back birdies at the second and third before picking up another shot at the sixth to be out in three-under.

Keeping his foot to the board, he started for home by making birdies at the 10th, 11th and 13th before finishing in style with two more gains.

After laying up at the last, the three-time European Tour winner rolled in a 10-footer, celebrating with a fist pump as the ball dropped into the hole.

“I played lovely,” added Ramsay. “I made a decision on the fifth to be a bit more aggressive with my approach rather than hitting a 9-iron to 20-25 feet from the pin.

“I missed it a little bit left, but I got up and down, holing a nice seven-footer for momentum. After that, I thought I needed to stay aggressive with the short irons.”

Scott Jamieson closed with a 71 to finish on nine-under, two better than Stephen Gallacher after the two-time winner signed off with the same score.

Struggling with blisters on his feet, Jamieson been 12-under before dropping three shots in his final two holes in the third round.

“That was a disappointing way to finish as I would have been in a different position going into today if I could have posted four or five-under,” said the Florida-based player.

Gallacher, who’d dug deep to make the cut in his favourite event, was four-under after 13 holes in his final round before running up a double-bogey 6 at the 14th.

“I couldn’t get any momentum going,” he said afterwards. “I put myself in situations to get four or five-under but I just couldn’t seem to to get there.

“For 12 holes today I hadn’t really missed a shot but I am being punished for my bad ones just now. My ball stuck up a tree at the 14th, for example, when I was three-under.

“Then my drive at the last has gone 330 yards into the wind but has sat down in the second cut of rough. Never in a million years did I think I could hit it that far.

“I was either hitting a sand wedge or going for it with 199 yards to the front. I ended up being a bit greedy but, on the whole, I’m pleased with four rounds under par even if it wasn’t as many as I would have wanted.”

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