DP World Tour : BMW PGA Championship Results
Ryan Fox won his first Rolex Series title as he birdied the last to post a closing 67 and lift the trophy at the BMW PGA Championship.
The New Zealander entered the day three shots off the lead and when he made a triple-bogey on the difficult third, he could have been forgiven for thinking that his chance had gone.
But he picked up two birdies on the front nine to turn in 36 and then came home in 31, birdieing the par-five 18th from six feet after laying up, to finish at 18 under, one clear of home favourites Tyrrell Hatton and Aaron Rai.
World Number Three Jon Rahm was 16 under after a 68, one ahead of Ryder Cup team-mate Viktor Hovland and two clear of another Ryder Cup player in Tommy Fleetwood.
World Number Two Rory McIlroy made a charge through the field with a closing 65 and he finished at 13 under alongside Australian Adam Scott and England's Callum Shinkwin.
Fox enjoyed a stellar start to his Rolex Series career, claiming three top tens in consecutive weeks in his rookie season in 2017 before adding another three in 2018, including a play-off loss at the Irish Open.
He had not had another Rolex Series top ten since, or a top ten at this event, coming into this week but he had added three DP World Tour wins and claimed last season's Seve Ballesteros Award after finishing second on the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex.
A tie for third at last week's Horizon Irish Open represented his best finish of 2023 so far and he now enters the history books as the first Kiwi winner of this event and follows in the footsteps of Major-winning countryman Michael Campbell, who won at Wentworth Club in the 2005 World Match Play Championship.
"I'm immensely proud," he said. "It's such an iconic tournament. I know Michael Campbell has won around here when it was the match play event and to add to that history here and create some of my own is very special.
"I've got an almost three-year-old and a four-month-old standing over there and to have them here to support with a place pretty close by where we can stay at home this week just made the week
"We have been through a pretty tough year as a family. We lost my father-in-law in June after a really, really short battle with cancer and that kind of rocked the family. It's been tough going back and forth.
"To come over here and have a good week in Ireland last week and this, I don't think I could have wished for better."
He added: "To have a back nine like that, especially after how I started the day, it's amazing. I played great. Pretty much didn't miss a shot from the third hole onwards and saw a couple of putts go in and it was a pretty cool feeling on the last to sort of know I had one to win and actually make it."
edit*** Canadian Aaron Cockerill continued his DP World Tour season T61 -1 68 74 71 74 287 worth $32,835 in Canadian money.
He has dropped to 70th in the standings with his last 5 outings T72 in Ireland, T63 in Switzerland, T64 at the Barracuda and T58 at the Barbasol.
Next week its the Cazoo Open at Le Golf National outside Paris in France, the week ahead of the Ryder Cup in Rome.
europeantour.com
Bryan Angus (edit)
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