PGA Tour: Pettersson clinches Canadian Open
It's been a good weekend for Swedish golf fans; besides seeing a home player win the Scandinavian Open yesterday afternoon when Richard S Johnson birdied the 18th to beat Rafa Echenique by a stroke in Stockholm, Carl Pettersson made it two for two in Toronto when he won the RBC Canadian Open a few hours later, edging out Dean Wilson.
The rather portly Pettersson won by a stroke, though he didn't finish with a flourish, bogeying the 18th - not that it made any difference. The 32-year-old managed six birdies during his final round, enough to come home three-under-par and secure his fourth victory on the PGA Tour.
The Swede had laid the foundations for this victory with his third round on Saturday, starting off unpromisingly with a bogey on the 2nd only to card seven birdies and a pair of eagles on the 9th and 11th. That performance was a tournament record that hauled Pettersson into contention, in joint-second place as the final day began.
Wilson was two-over on the day, shooting a final round of 72 having carded five-under-65 on each of his three previous rounds. He had led by four strokes on the final day, only to see his lead dwindle as a couple of bogeys let Pettersson catch up.
England's Luke Donald finished third, 12-under for the tournament and four-under the day; that result gave him a slight boost in the world rankings to No. 7 from No.9, making him the second highest-ranked Englishman behind world No. 3 Lee Westwood.
Donald also enhanced his chances of appearing on the European Ryder Cup team; the 32-year-old is fourth on the world points list, and the top four on that list will automatically qualify for Colin Montgomerie's team.
No fewer than nine players were tied for the 4th spot on 10-under, among them South Africa's Tim Clark. But in the week after the Open, many of the biggest names had chosen to stay away, while Paul Casey, who many had tipped to perform well here, missed the cut after finishing one-over on the Friday.
Brent Delahoussaye's fleeting brush with fame is over for now, despite the player's record-breaking opening round of eight-under-par 62 on Thursday. He followed that up with rounds of one-under 69 on Friday - and then six-over 76 on on Saturday, going out with a whimper rather than a bang yesterday with five bogeys to see him finish one-under for the tournament.
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