Andalucia Masters: Sergio Garcia secures title on home turf

Round four leaders

• -12 Sergio Garcia
• -11 Joost Luiten
• -7 Daniel Brooks
• -5 Jamie Donaldson

Scroll down for full collated scores

Round four report

Tournament host Sergio Garcia made a successful, if rather belated, title defence in the Andalucia Valderrama Masters to claim a sixth victory on home soil.

Masters champion Garcia, who won the last staging of the event in 2011, carded a closing 67 to finish 12 under par, a shot ahead of Holland's Joost Luiten.

England's Daniel Brooks was four strokes further back in third, a result good enough to secure his European Tour card for next season by moving him from 123rd on the Race to Dubai to inside the top 100.

After seeing his one-shot overnight lead quickly wiped out when Brooks birdied the second, Garcia responded with a birdie on the par-five fourth and ended the front nine in style by using a fairway wood to hole from the fringe for a birdie on the ninth.

Watched by his wife Angela and father Victor, Garcia then holed from 10 feet for birdie on the 10th and three feet on the next to move three clear, only to bogey the 12th after failing to get up and down from a greenside bunker.

The gap was down to one when Luiten birdied the 13th and another birdie on the 15th drew the Dutchman level, only for the five-time European Tour winner to three-putt the next.

Both men birdied the par-five 17th and when Luiten's birdie attempt on the last caught the edge of the hole and stayed out, Garcia had the luxury of two-putting from close range to claim a third win of the season.

"It was amazing," Garcia told Sky Sports. "All three of us (in the final group) played amazing.

"Daniel played great with everything he had on the line, trying to keep his card, and Joost played unbelievable. I played really well and felt like maybe I could get away and he just kept coming back and made it an amazing match.

"I stayed patient the whole time, made sure the bad moments didn't affect me too much and made a couple of really key putts coming in.

"I want to dedicate this one to my wife Angela and our little baby coming next year in March - this one is for them."

Collated scores

(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):

(a) denotes amateurs

272 Sergio Garcia(Spa)66 71 68 67

273 Joost Luiten (Ned) 66 70 71 66

277 Daniel Brooks 70 72 64 71

279 Jamie Donaldson 73 67 68 71

280 Wade Ormsby (Aus) 73 70 67 70

281 Anders Hansen (Den) 70 70 71 70, Scott Jamieson 69 68 71 73

282 Julian Suri (USA) 73 73 65 71, Robert Rock 67 70 74 71, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 74 71 69 68, Aaron Rai 70 74 71 67

283 Peter Hanson (Swe) 69 75 68 71, Shane Lowry 72 70 69 72, Ashley Chesters 72 74 69 68, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 71 71 72 69, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 67 73 73 70, Oliver Fisher 72 73 70 68

284 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 72 71 70 71, Matt Wallace 71 72 69 72, Andy Sullivan 71 72 74 67, Daniel Willett 70 72 71 71, Chris Hanson 72 74 68 70

285 Ricardo Gouveia (Por) 69 70 72 74, Andrew Johnston 69 71 73 72, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 73 69 72 71, Renato Paratore (Ita) 77 68 72 68

286 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 70 75 72 69, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 70 72 74 70, Padraig Harrington 72 73 69 72

287 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 72 72 70 73, Richard Bland 70 71 73 73, Robert Dinwiddie 71 71 71 74, Paul Waring 71 72 71 73, Matteo Manassero (Ita) 70 74 68 75, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 71 70 73 73

288 Ben Evans 69 69 77 73, Jens Fahrbring (Swe) 73 71 70 74, Lasse Jensen (Den) 70 74 73 71, Jorge Campillo (Spa) 73 73 72 70, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 75 71 72 70, Carlos Pigem (Spa) 73 73 74 68, Florian Fritsch (Ger) 71 75 70 72, James Morrison 69 74 73 72, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 72 70 75 71, Thomas Detry (Bel) 72 72 71 73

289 Alfie Plant 70 72 74 73, Paul Peterson (USA) 68 72 75 74

290 Richard Finch 69 73 72 76, Ashun Wu (Chn) 72 71 74 73, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 75 68 70 77, Lee Slattery 72 71 71 76, Bradley Dredge 73 73 71 73

291 Mark Foster 73 72 77 69

292 Andres Romero (Arg) 71 75 75 71, Justin Walters (Rsa) 71 74 71 76, Pep Angles (Spa) 75 69 74 74, Austin Connelly (Can) 73 69 76 74

293 Anton Karlsson (Swe) 73 72 75 73, Sean Crocker (USA) 73 73 75 72, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 69 71 81 72

294 Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 70 76 76 72

295 Damien Perrier (Fra) 74 72 71 78

299 Oliver Wilson 69 70 81 79

300 Connor Syme 75 70 76 79

302 Alexander Knappe (Ger) 74 72 79 77

Round three report

Tournament host Sergio Garcia will take a slender lead into the final round of the Andalucia Valderrama Masters as he seeks a sixth victory on home soil.

The Spaniard has been priced up at 4/7 for glory by Sky Bet but he has also been PRICE BOOSTED to 6/1 from 4/1 by the firm to win by five shots or more.

On the day that he was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the European Tour, Garcia carded a third round of 68 to finish eight under par, a shot ahead of England's Daniel Brooks.

Brooks (13/2) carded a superb 64 to end the day a shot in front of halfway leader Joost Luiten (9/2), who could only manage a 71, with Welshman Jamie Donaldson (12/1) and Scotland's Scott Jamieson (20/1) a shot further back on five under.

Ireland's Shane Lowry (40/1) is six shots off the pace after carding a double bogey on the 18th for the second day in succession.

"I got off to a great start with a couple of birdies - almost three birdies in a row - and then unfortunately missed a couple of shots and made a couple of bogeys, but I stayed patient," Masters champion Garcia said.

"It would be an amazing achievement (to win) but it's still a long day to come. I can't get too much ahead of myself."

Brooks was threatening Bernhard Langer's course record of 62 when he raced to the turn in 30 and also birdied the 10th, 11th and 15th, but bogeyed two of the last three holes.

"It was good fun out there, I hit a lot of good shots," Brooks told Sky Sports. "I've been playing some great golf all week and I've made a lot of birdies.

"I had seven birdies each round the first two days and just let it slip a bit. As soon as you start missing a couple of shots, you hit a few trees and your head starts to go all over the place. Today was a lot calmer for me and kept it in play."

Brooks began the week 123rd in the Race to Dubai, with only the top 100 on Sunday evening keeping their card for next season.

"I knew I needed a good week," the 30-year-old added. "If you have a good one, great, if not then Tour school in a few weeks' time - it's not the end of the world.

"But I've got myself in a good position now and hopefully I can have a good day tomorrow."

Round two report

Joost Luiten hit a stunning albatross to claim a one-shot lead after two rounds of the Andalucia Valderrama Masters and he is now Sky Bet's 11/4 second favourite to lift the trophy on Sunday.

The Dutchman holed his second shot at the par-five 11th to wow the galleries and take a giant step towards the leaderboard summit, where he sits on six under par.

That moment turned the 31-year-old's round on its head, and wiped out three of the four bogeys he made en route to a one-under 70.

Luiten had finished second at last year's Open de Espana at the same venue and reached the halfway stage a stroke ahead of tournament host Sergio Garcia (2/1 favourite), Englishman Robert Rock (12/1) and Scott Jamieson (16/1) of Scotland.

PRICE BOOST: English winner of Andalucia Masters is now 5/1 from 3/1 with Sky Bet!

Conditions made scoring tougher than on day one, with Rock also one under for the day and Garcia shooting a level-par 71. Jamieson's 68, containing five birdies and two bogeys, was therefore good enough to catapult him into the reckoning.

Welshman Jamie Donaldson (33/1) went one better, signing for a best-of-day four under, though he was still four off the lead after a slow start on Thursday.

Andrew Johnston (25/1), who edged Luiten in the 2016 Open de Espana, joined Donaldson in a six-strong group on two under.

Luiten told the European Tour's official website: "I'm happy with the way I played. I finished second, (here), I like this place. Hopefully we can have a good weekend and we can win here but there's a lot of golf to be played and we just need to focus on tomorrow and have another good round.

"I think it will play a bit shorter off the tee, it will be a bit harder maybe to hit the fairways if they're going to run off but it's still fairly soft, you can still be aggressive into the pins but you've got to hit the fairways and that's the gameplan for the weekend.

"I think 10 under will be a good number."

World number five Jon Rahm missed the cut, finishing seven over after 36 disappointing holes in his first professional tournament on home soil.

Round one report

Sergio Garcia fared much the best of the headline Spanish duo in the first round of the Andalucia Masters and is into 13/8 to win for the third time in 2017.

Out early alongside Andrew Johnston and Shane Lowry, Garcia produced an excellent opening 66 to share the lead with Joost Luiten (11/2), who had posted the clubhouse target minutes before the Masters champion matched it.

Garcia's compatriot Pablo Larrazabal shot a four-under 67 to join Robert Rock in a share of third, but world number five Jon Rahm was foxed by the greens in a three-over 74 which left him eight behind the leaders.

Starting on the back nine, Garcia made birdie at his first hole, the short par-four 10th, before adding two more on the par-threes, holes 12 and 15.

A birdie at the 18th hole was cancelled out by a bogey at the first but Garcia completed a clean sweep of the par-threes while taking care of the par-five fourth to reach six-under.

A wayward drive at the eighth cost him a shot and a chance went begging at the ninth, but Garcia was more than happy with an excellent day's work.

"It was nice," Garcia told europeantour.com. "It was gettable because it was soft but you still had to hit good shots and I was able to do that for the most part of the day. I'm very happy with my round.

"The game was on pretty much all day. I hit my irons very well, I didn't drive the ball well on the eighth hole but I was pretty much spot on there and I made some nice putts here and there. The greens were rolling quite fast, more than anything the back nine was even faster than the front. Overall I think it was very solid."

In contrast to Garcia, Luiten's round came alive towards the end as a series of laser-like approaches saw him birdie five of his last seven holes.

The Dutchman hit it inside three feet at holes six, seven and eight, again having started on the 10th, to share the lead as he seeks to win for the first time in more than a year.

Related links

• Sky Bet's Andalucia Masters odds