South African Garth Mulroy bags maiden European Tour title at Alfred Dunhill Championship
Garth Mulroy, the overnight leader of the third round, finally bagged his first European Tour title at the Alfred Dunhill Championship, playing the scenic Leopard Creek Country Club in his home turf. Heading into the final round with two strokes lead, Mulroy
succumbed to an early bogey to allow countryman Jbe Kruger to level the lead. Kruger later stumbled on double-bogeys to fall behind the ranks, throwing himself out of contention.
“I just tried to play smart golf and hit it in the right spots,” said Mulroy, "I knew halfway down that slope it had a chance," he added, referring to his monster putt at the 16th.
The event was co-sanctioned by both European Tour and the Sunshine Tour of South Africa and featured some of the top-ranking players on the Sunshine Tour. Mulroy has already won twice on the Sunshine Tour this year and now has a bright chance to surge to
the top of the Order of Merit in next week’s South African Open. This marked the 100th South African victory on the European Tour and the 33-year-old considers it quite an accolade.
“I want to win the Sunshine Tour Order of Merit. I know I’m ahead now, but I’m not going to relax until next week’s over. I’ll putt it off the tee next week if I have to!” he said. “There are a lot of opportunities for me now. It’s nice to have these kind
of options.”
Scott George Murray, who performed amazingly well in Alfred Dunhill Links Championship earlier this year, where he outsmarted world number one Luke Donald in the final round, posted his best finish on the tour, settling for an outright second. He carded
a final round of 67 to trail the leader by two points, winning runners up prize share of € 115,000 against Mulroy’s winning prize share of € 158,500.
A group of four players finished for a joint third including Felipe Aguilar, George Coetzee, Jaco Van Zyl and Peter Whiteford, all posting an aggregate of 13-under, 275. Another two players finished for a joint seventh including South African Hennie Otto
and Italian Andrea Pavan. Kruger succumbed to a sloppy final round of 73 after his consecutive bogeys, finishing for joint ninth.
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