Horsey triumphs as leaders implode

England’s David Horsey was still pinching himself this Monday morning to check that he had won his first European Tour title.

England’s David Horsey was still pinching himself this Monday morning to check that he had won his first European Tour title.
The 25-year-old from Stockport – a team-mate of Rory McIlroy in the 2007 Walker Cup – captured the BMW International Open in Munich by a shot from compatriot Ross Fisher.
Yet for most of Sunday’s final round they had appeared to be no more than also-rans looking on as the major battle raged between Welshman Bradley Dredge and Spaniard Pablo Larrazabal.
That was until Larrazabal, one ahead with three to play, double-bogeyed the 16th and then bogeyed the 17th before long-time leader Dredge, having three-putted the 10th and 12th, also took six on the 319-yard 16th.
The comedy of errors on one of the easiest courses on the whole circuit opened the door to the chasing pack and Horsey was the one to capitalise.
Two birdies in his last three holes gave him a five under par 67 and an 18 under total which he had never imagined would be good enough to win.
Fisher, meanwhile, eagled the par five 18th to take second place – and how important that might prove in the final weeks of the Ryder Cup race.
“Never really in my wildest dreams did I think I would win this tournament,” said Horsey, who won the ‘second division’ Challenge Tour in his first full season as a professional and who had already posted two runners-up finishes on the main circuit.
“I wasn’t really in the mix until 16 and coming down the last I didn’t know what was going on. I just wanted to concentrate on what I was doing.
“The last few weeks have been a bit of a struggle (he had missed three cuts in a row) and I just wanted to relax this week.
“This win is what I’ve been trying to get for over a year. I felt I was good enough coming out on Tour, but maybe I put a little bit too much pressure on myself.”
He has further reason for celebration as his mother has just finished treatment for both breast and ovarian cancer.
Larrazabal blamed poor preparation by himself and his brother, who caddies for him, for his blunder on the 16th.
“I thought I had only three or four metres (of green) behind the flag, but I had eight. These things you do in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I lost the tournament there. It was a big mistake from us.”
He hit his second into the edge of the lake short of the green and in trying to splash out went over the green and then duffed a chip.
Dredge, who had only one bogey in his first 63 holes, could take a while to get over a slide which dealt a huge blow to his hopes of making the Ryder Cup on home soil.
He was lucky at the 16th when his duffed approach just missed the water, but after also going over the green with his third he almost went back into the hazard with his chip and did well in the end to drop only two shots.
They were the two strokes, however, which cost him a play-off.