SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (AP) — English golfer Dan Bradbury carded a 5-under 66 in the final round to win the Open de France by one stroke on Sunday.
The 25-year-old Bradbury stepped it up with four birdies on the back nine to finish at 16 under overall for his second European tour career win. He held off Denmark’s Jeff Winther after he shot up the leaderboard with seven birdies in his faultless round of 64.
Victory earned Bradbury spots at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and the World Tour Championship in Dubai.
“It hasn’t sunk in at all. The goal this week was to make the cut so I didn’t have to go to Korea (needing to) keep my card,” Bradbury said. He added: “I guess I’ll be looking at flights to Dubai then.”
Winther could only par the last two holes and finished tied for second with countryman Thorbjørn Olesen (68), England’s Sam Bairstow (68) and Germany’s Yannik Paul (66) at Le Golf National on the outskirts of Paris.
Bradbury said he felt it could be his day when he just avoided landing in the water on the 15th hole and then rolled in a putt from 15 feet (4.5 meters) out.
“Luckily it stayed on, and I hit a horrendous putt that went in,” he said. “Sometimes you just need that. Once I’d done that it felt like ‘there’s definitely something going for me.’”
Swedish golfer Jesper Svensson, who held a one-stroke overnight lead from Olesen and Bairstow, had a nightmare round of 5-over 76 to tumble down to a share of 27th.
Svensson had three bogeys and two birdies on the front nine, and things got worse with two bogeys and a double bogey on the back nine.
Bradbury, who was two strokes behind Svensson overnight, won his other European Tour title two years ago at the Joburg Open in South Africa.
England’s Justin Rose, who tied for second at July’s British Open, posted 69 to finish tied for 13th at 10 under.
Lev Grinberg (71), the 16-year-old Ukrainian playing for just the fifth time on the European tour, tied for 37th.
