Johnson win delights home fans at Scandinavian Masters
Richard S Johnson denied Rafa Echenique the opportunity for a play-off at the very last in Stockholm yesterday, successfully draining a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th to take the Nordea Scandinavian Masters by a single stroke over the Argentinian.
That meant Johnson finished on 11-under to deny Echenique, who minutes earlier had completed his tournament on 10-under-par, having shot a final round of three-under-par 69. Johnson had only managed to stay on level par for the final round prior to the last hole, but the Swede's winning putt delighted the watching crowds, who have only previously seen one home winner of the tournament.
His penultimate shot at Bro Hof Slott golf club looked to have put the Swede in a good position to tie the tournament, but few could have expected the birdie - Johnson, rated 329th in the world, has laboured without success on the PGA tour for much of the year. Wayward putting has accounted in part for the 33-year-old's failure to make much impression in the States this year since a fourth place finish at February's Mayakoba Classic.
The victory in Sweden is only Johnson's second on the European Tour, his previous win coming back in 2002 when he won the ANZ Championship in Australia. But the win on home turf will surely be one of the finest that Johnson will ever savour.
"It's one of the sweetest things I've ever done," he said. "This is a huge tournament to win for a Swede and I'm speechless right now. It's epic."
Italy's Edoardo Molinari was in third place, on nine-under, while two Australians, Brett Rumford and Mark Brown, were tied for fourth place along with Louis Oosthuizen, the unfancied South African who won the Open Championship at St Andews the previous weekend.
KJ Choi had started the day with a share of the lead but the Korean's bid for glory imploded, Choi beginning with a double bogey seven on the 1st after hitting his drive out of bounds. He went on to bogey the fourth and sixth, before a thoroughly miserable 15th, where two of Choi's shots ended up plopping disconsolately into the drink. He shipped a quadruple bogey nine on that hole, and finished six-over-par 78 on the day, four-under for the tournament - a score that saw his standing plummet to 13th place on the leaderboard.
If Choi was cheerless, though, Echenique could scarcely have been feeling chipper, either. Echenique is still waiting for his first win on the European Tour; this has to feel like a huge missed opportunity for the South American.
Tags: