Monday, November 25, 2013

Dane Madsen gets first European Tour win in South Africa

Denmark's Morten Orum Madsen claimed his first European Tour victory with a two-shot win at the South African Open Championship on the outskirts of Johannesburg on Sunday.

Madsen had looked an unlikely winner earlier in the day but home favourites Hennie Otto and Charl Schwartzel both squandered three-shot leads to gift him the title.

He carded a bogey-free five-under-par 67 in his fourth round for a total of 269, two shots ahead of South Africans Jbe Kruger and Otto.

With his father watching from the gallery, the 25-year-old Madsen beat his previous best finish of second at the Madeira Open in May.

"It's been an amazing day, it hasn't sunk in. Coming down here I didn't expect to win," Madsen said at the trophy presentation.

"Schwartzel looked like he was just going to go off... I was just trying to hang on and see if I could stay within two or three shots. Unfortunately for him he struggled on a couple of holes and got some bad breaks. Luckily for me I was there to capitalise."

Overnight leader Schwartzel, searching for his first win in his home championship, carded a disappointing final-round 71, which included a triple bogey on the sixth hole and a double on the 10th, to finish in tied fourth with Italian Marco Crespi.

Otto, who led by three shots going into the final four holes, dropped a shot on the 15th and double-bogeyed the next hole to allow Madsen to take over at the top of the leaderboard.

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