Click here for clubhouse scores
Sweden's Richard Johnson, given the nickname of 'The Whippet' during the week,
won his first European tour title in Sydney on Sunday.
The 25-year-old, only 5ft 8ins and less than 11 stones, became nearly £120,000
richer with a two-point victory in the ANZ Championship at The Lakes.
Under the modified stableford format - two points for birdies, five for eagles
- his closing five under par 68 translated to 11 points and a 72-hole total of
46. He was 19 under for the week.
"When I holed my last putt it felt like my life changed," said Johnson,
ranked a lowly 369th in the world at the start of the year.
"I am a winner now and we will see what happens, I guess."
He never gave himself a hope of victory after opening with a level par 73,
which left him 17 points behind England's Jonathan Lomas.
But, adopting a policy of "laughing at everything", he finished 10 ahead of
him.
Australians Craig Parry and Scott Laycock tied for second, overnight leader
Andre Stolz fourth and Scot Stephen Gallacher fifth.
Two behind Laycock with three holes to play, Johnson holed a 20-foot putt on
the 16th and Laycock then bogeyed the long 17th.
Pre-tournament favourite Parry moved into second place with a birdie on the
same hole and would have caught Johnson with another at the last.
But he missed the green and failed to get up and down. Only four months ago
Johnson feared for his tour future, but narrowly avoided a return to the
qualifying school and now he does not have to worry about that for the next two
seasons.
This is only his third full season on the circuit and he finished 96th on the
Order of Merit in 2000 and 112th last year.
He did not turn professional until five years ago, having first competed in
the Swedish championships at skateboarding.
That sport was dropped, however, after he broke seven ribs, a hand and a foot
over the years.
"To be any good you have to be crazy to do the stunts," he said.
On his slender frame he added: "Not all of us are like Ernie (Els) or Tiger,
but golf has become so physical and you have to work out."
One of the people he thanked was a physio currently with the Swedish Winter
Olympic team at Salt Lake City.
Parry, who admitted he had not heard of Johnson prior to the week, was unhappy
afterwards about a slow play warning early in the round.
"I don't think players should be told," he said. "It upset my rhythm and
it's frustrating to come up a couple of points short."
Playing partner Johnson commented: "I was maybe a bit slow, but I was trying
to pace myself."
Gallacher was joint third with Johnson with a round to go, but in the first 14
holes undid the work of five birdies with six bogeys.
Yorkshire's Ian Garbutt had set the early clubhouse target with the best round
of his eight-year tour career - a nine under par 64 which eventually left him
sixth, another personal best.
The 29-year-old from Doncaster, English amateur champion in 1990, had an eagle
and seven birdies, the last of them a tap-in after his tee shot to the 18th
pulled up nine inches short of the flag.
If it had gone in for an ace - or if he had holed a five-foot eagle chance on
the 14th - Garbutt would have been two in front, but he was happy enough after
surviving the halfway cut with just a single point to spare on Saturday morning.
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook