Michael Hoey wins the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship: Highlights
The final day of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship turned out to be an All-Irish affair on Sunday, October 2, when overnight leader, Michael Hoey continued his exceptional form to lift the title. This is Hoey’s third European Tour victory for the season
after he won the Madeira Islands Open and Madeira Islands Open BPI - Portugal on the Challenge Tour.
The 32-year-old Irishman started off the final round with a two-shot lead over the rest of the field, playing the Old Course at St. Andrews. He successfully managed to keep Rory McIlroy at bay who threatened his lead several times during the first-half of
the event. McIlroy managed to fill in for a staggering five-shot deficit to challenge Hoey for the top slot. Hoey stumbled on two bogeys but quickly shot back to stay ahead of McIlroy. Hoey admitted, “I felt I was throwing this away at that stage."
He quickly put that disappointment behind him with birdies on the next two holes from close range to take a lead he would not relinquish. McIlroy settled for an outright second, trailing Hoey by two shots. Hoey carded an aggregate of 22-under, 266, and has
now soared to Number 98 position on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) from his previous spot of Number 271.
The 2010 US Open champion at Pebbles Beach, Graeme McDowell, settled for a joint third along with Andy Murray, trailing the leader by four strokes. Hoey also conceded that he had a brilliant day to be in contention with his countrymen, McIlroy and McDowell.
Hoey added, “Playing with Graeme (McDowell), he's such a battler and wanted to win himself, but he said to me a couple of times on the green 'Knock it in' and fortunately at the end I was able to put a bit of fight in myself.”
Three players including Tommy Fleetwood, Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Warren continued with their impressive putting all through the weekend to finish for a joint fifth. Oosthuizen, the 2010 Open Champion, carded a final round of 69 against his comparatively
previous better rounds of 66, 67, and 69, respectively.
Another Irishman, Padraig Harrington finished for an outright eighth followed by a group of eight players who finished for a joint ninth. The group included Luke Donald, Nicolas Colsaerts, Jamie Donaldson, Simon Dyson, Peter Hanson, Joost Luiten, Charl Schwartzel,
and Jaco Van Zyl, all of them finishing for an aggregate of 15-under, 273.
Defending champion, Martin Kaymer tried to recover from his devastating third round misadventure where he fell for a sloppy 75 and carded a final round of 68, to settle for joint 30th along with World Number Two, Lee Westwood, who also had a disappointing
day when he pulled a round of 73.
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