Sergio Garcia fires 61 to win the Iskandar Johor Open
Sergio Garcia of Spain fired a scintillating 11-under par 61, in the final round of the Iskandar Johor Open, to claim the third Asian Tour victory of his career.
The tournament, which was being played at the Horizon Hills Golf and Country Club, was shortened to 54 holes, after the inclement weather forced the game to be suspended several times during the week.
Entering the final round, Garcia was trailing the overnight leader Daniel Chopra by three strokes, and was sharing the seventh position on the leaderboard.
He then made a strong charge on the leaderboard, by carding birdies on seven of the first eight holes that he played.
Thereafter, he added another four shots to his scorecard, by carding four birdies in a row, starting from the 13th hole.
At the end of the week, he found himself comfortably securing the victory by finishing three strokes ahead of Jonathan Moore. The Spaniard’s overall score, at the end of the tournament, was 18-under par 198.
His 11-under par 61 was the best final-round score recorded by a winner, in the history of the Asian Tour.
However, the score did not find any place in the record books, as the preferred lies rule was in place, during the final round in Malaysia.
“It has been a long week obviously because of the weather and I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end the week. It has been a great experience as this is my first time in Malaysia and to be able to win is a treat,” said Garcia.
“The most important thing about playing under these kinds of conditions is to keep the momentum going especially with so much disruption. It’s hard to keep up mentally and I sort of did that yesterday morning where I finished poorly. But today, I came back strongly,” said Garcia.
Moore, in the meantime, also matched Garcia’s score by carding nine birdies and a sparkling eagle, to claim his second runner-up finish of the season.
The overnight leader Chopra finished fourth on the leaderboard, after carding a 13-under par tournament score.
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