Easy does it for Schwartzel

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December 17, 2012

Charl Schwartzel carded a final round three-under-par 69 to storm to a 12-shot win at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.

Charl Schwartzel carded a final round three-under-par 69 to storm to a 12-shot win at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.

The South African started the day with a 10-shot lead and was in cruise mode for pretty much all of Sunday as he won by a tournament-record score of 24-under-par.

The win at the Leopard Creek Golf Club came hot in the heels of his 11-shot victory in Thailand last weekend and only Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, who won the 2000 US Open and 2005 Asian Open by 15 and 13 shots respectively, have won by bigger margins in the circuit’s 40-year history.

After two consecutive 64s, the 2010 Masters champion dropped a shot at the eighth – only his third of the week – but picked up one immediately before a thunderstorm suspended play for two hours.

He returned and claimed two more shots at the 12th and 13th before wrapping things up with another birdie on the final hole.

“It’s always been a special place for me,” the 28-year-old said. “This is where I can almost say my career started and it’s always stayed close to my heart.

“It’s nice to have continued my form from last week. I was saying a month and a half ago it’s been a pretty disappointing year.

“Slowly and surely I started to swing the club a lot better, back to how I did when I won The Masters, and I actually got excited to play again.

“It started at the SA Open and from there got better and better. It’s been a pretty good year now!”

Gregory Bourdy was Schwartzel’s main rival for most of the weekend, but a double-bogey seven on the final hole saw him slip to join third alongside Andy Sullivan (69), Garth Mulroy (68) and Nelson Mandela Championship winner Scott Jamieson (68).

Kristoffer Broberg eagled the 13th to finish with a two-under-par 70 and a total of 12-under 277.

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