European Tour: Dubai Duty Free Irish Open final Leaderboard
With Rory and his 13 other Irish pals out of contention it was Aussie Lucas Herbert who won by 4 shots earlier today at Mount Julien Estates in Kilkenny..
Here's my pals @europeantour.com with the story....
Lucas Herbert produced a brilliant battling round of 68 to win his second European Tour title in wire to wire fashion at the 2021 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open...
The Australian entered the final day at Mount Juliet Estate with a one shot advantage and while he extended that to three in the early stages of his round, he would not have it all his own way.
After losing control off the tee, he had to utilise all his scrambling skills and mental strength to reach the turn in 35 and at that point, he had been caught at the top of the leaderboard.
But the 25-year-old produced a wonderfully composed performance down the stretch, coming home in 33 to finish at 19 under, three shots ahead of Swede Rikard Karlberg and four ahead of American Johannes Veerman.
The victory also gives Herbert a place in the field at The 2021 Open Championship alongside Karlberg, who birdied three of his last four holes in a 67, and Veerman who carded a 71.
He came from six back to win his maiden European Tour title at the 2020 Omega Dubai Desert Classic but had no such trouble in County Kilkenny, becoming the second wire to wire winner on the 2021 Race to Dubai after Bernd Wiesbgerger at the Made in Himmerland presented by FREJA, holding the solo lead after every round.
Herbert had fallen out of the top 200 on the Official World Golf Ranking when he won in Dubai but he will now hit a new career high, sitting just outside the top 50, and he revealed that when he was playing this event in 2019, he was not sure if Tour life as a professional golfer was for him.
"I just really wasn't enjoying my life on the road and I think at the end of that week I was pretty much questioning whether this was the career that I wanted to do," he said. "I'd never played full time on Tour with a full Tour card and been away from home so much as well. I think that was the first case of reality and I don't know that I really enjoyed it that much at the time. There was a lot of soul searching going on.
"The people around me that were the closest, that were looking after me the most, I wasn't treating them the way I probably should have. It was just a big soul search after the following week, The Scottish Open and flew home. I had to do a lot of thinking and that Irish Open was probably the low point. For it to come full circle now and be holding this trophy, it's really special."
He added: "Looking at the names on that trophy, it's pretty special, to add my name to that list is something that nobody can take away from me now and it's very, very satisfying to do it.
"I won in Dubai last year and how much that benefitted me winning the event rather than a top five or a top three. A win is so much more than a second place so I was mentally trying to keep that at the forefront of my mind today - a win is a lot bigger than just a good finish and I was proud to finish the way I did.
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