Bernd Wiesberger lands his maiden European Tour victory at Ballantine’s Championship: Wrap-up Part-2
Continued from: Bernd Wiesberger lands his maiden European Tour victory at Ballantine’s Championship: Wrap-up Part-1
Wiesberger made the turn for some more level-par opening holes at the back nine until he carded two consecutive birdies towards the closing holes.
He called it a day with another blistering birdie on the 18th, claiming the title with an un-blemished final round of four-under, 68.
He added, “My game plan was to hit as many greens as possible and try to make putts, and they dropped in the end. I didn’t get nervous, I had three or four shots. There was a pretty shaky moment at 12 but I made a great chip and a putt for par, but I just
tried to enjoy it the last three or four holes in”.
The victory beacons towards a new beginning for the struggling Wiesberger who slipped out of the mainstream European Tour last season and earned his tour card for the current season with two victories on the secondary Challenge Tour.
The young Austrian won his first European Tour title in his 71st start on the tour and has now €438,464 on the Race to Dubai points table.
He has now soared to a high of 95th on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR). He also played his last 59 holes without dropping a shot.
Wiesberger is also the third Austrian to win on the European Tour after Markus Brier and Martin Wiegele.
He shot into contention twice the previous year, finishing runners up at Gleneagles behind Dane Thomas Bjorn.
Fraser, another aspiring contender in the event who was looking for his third European Tour victory, played well on the final day, carding a humble two-under, 70, was the only contender in the event who posed a serious threat to Wiesberger earlier in the
day.
He pulled in an early birdie at par-three, 3rd but remained birdie-less for the rest of the front nine.
The 33-year-old Australian made the turn to card one more on the 11th but was not able to capitalise on his early gains in the rest of the day.
While hopes were already fading away, Fraser dropped a shot at par-four, 17th before carding his last birdie of the day at the closing hole.
To be continued...
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