England’s Callum Shinkwin claimed his second DP World Tour title with a four-shot victory in the Cazoo Open.
Leaderboard
-12 Shinkwin
-8 Syme
-5 Guerrier, Sullivan, Dixon, Paratore, Bjerregaard
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England’s Callum Shinkwin claimed his second DP World Tour title with a four-shot victory in the Cazoo Open.
Shinkwin carded a closing 70 to finish 12 under par at Celtic Manor, where he has now finished first, fourth and eighth in his last three visits.
A late charge from Scotland’s Connor Syme secured second place on eight under, with Julien Guerrier, Andy Sullivan, David Dixon, Renato Paratore and Lucas Bjerregaard sharing third another three strokes back.
Guerrier had trailed Shinkwin by a shot after 54 holes and fell further behind with a bogey on the first, but immediately got on level terms thanks to a birdie on the second as Shinkwin bogeyed.
However, Guerrier then dropped shots on each of the next three holes and Shinkwin rolled in a hat-trick of birdies from the fourth to establish what proved to be an unassailable six-shot lead.
“I’m just over the moon that I played great and finished it off,” said an emotional Shinkwin, whose previous win came in the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Open in 2020.
“I feel great. Even though I had a few shots of a lead heading into the back nine it’s still not easy, especially when Connor then made a charge.
“There was a lot of pressure still and even down the last, it’s not an easy hole, a lot of people have made a high number there even if they’ve hit the fairway. It’s still one of those ones you have to commit to with your shots.
“There were no crowds in Cyprus and I was behind going into the final round then shot a great score and won in the play-off. Here I was in the lead heading into the final round and obviously it went very tight, then big gap, then tight-ish again. It’s much different this time.”
Syme, who made an eagle on the 11th and a hat-trick of birdies from the 15th before dropping a shot on the last, said: “Overall I’m pretty pleased to be honest.
“Obviously I was six back going into the day so I knew the leaders were more than likely going to have to come back to me. My target was to try and get to 12 under and see what happened, but the putts just didn’t drop on the front nine to be totally honest.
“I said to Callum ‘Did I make you feel any pressure at all?’, but it was a really clutch putt on the 17th to stay three ahead going down the last. Fair play to him, his putter was great today, he played very well and he deserved the win.”
