Marcus Armitage storms to first European Tour title thanks to stunning 65

about 4 years in The Irish Times

England’s Marcus Armitage produced a stunning final round to claim his first European Tour title in the Porsche European Open in Hamburg.
Beginning the day four shots off the lead, Armitage stormed through the field with a closing 65 to finish eight under par, two shots ahead of Matthew Southgate, Darius van Driel, Edoardo Molinari and Thomas Detry.
Defending champion Paul Casey finished two shots further back following a final round of 68 in an event reduced to 54 holes due to quarantine issues for players, caddies and staff from the UK.
Armitage, who recently set a new Guinness World Record for the longest shot (303 yards) caught in a moving car, birdied the first and third before holing out from 80 yards for an eagle on the par-four seventh.
The 33-year-old almost repeated the feat on the ninth to set up a tap-in birdie and complete the front nine in just 29, before birdies on the 11th, 12th and 14th took him four shots clear.
Southgate responded to dropping a shot on the 11th with a tap-in birdie on the next and Armitage gave the chasing pack further hope on the 16th, surprisingly opting to putt from short of the green despite having more than 100 feet to the hole.
The resulting bogey cut his lead to two and it was down to one when Southgate tapped in for a birdie on the 15th after coming agonisingly close to an eagle from 35 feet.
Southgate again came close to holing from long range on the 16th but, after
also making par on the 17th, pulled his drive on the last into the water to
effectively end his chances.
Van Driel needed to eagle the 18th to force a playoff and had 226 yards to the green following a superb drive, but bafflingly opted to lay up and when he failed to hole his approach, Armitage could celebrate an emotional win.
Northern Ireland’s Cormac Sharvin slipped down towards the end of the field after closing with a six-over 78 that saw him finish the tournament on eight over.
With three double-bogeys and three bogeys in his round, Sharvin did enjoy the seventh hole, where he carded an eagle two on the 372-yard par four.
Final scores
(British and Irish unless stated, Par 72): 208 Marcus Armitage 72 71 65
210 Thomas Detry (Bel) 68 73 69, Matthew Southgate 70 69 71, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 75 65 70, Darius van Driel (Ned) 71 69 70
212 Paul Casey 75 69 68
213 Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 74 67 72, David Law 69 71 73, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 70 74 69, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 70 73 70
214 Joost Luiten (Ned) 76 68 70, Renato Paratore (Ita) 74 69 71, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 71 74 69, Jordan Smith 73 72 69, Sean Crocker (USA) 72 71 71, Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 71 68 75, Dale Whitnell 71 74 69
215 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 74 70 71, Scott Jamieson 70 70 75, Ashley Chesters 69 75 71, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 72 71 72, Jack Senior 73 72 70, Connor Syme 75 69 71, Wil Besseling (Ned) 73 72 70
216 Jorge Campillo (Esp) 78 67 71, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 72 73 71, Richie Ramsay 77 69 70, David Horsey 76 68 72
217 Alexander Bjork (Swe) 69 74 74, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 76 70 71, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 76 70 71, Calum Hill 76 68 73, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 75 70 72, Benjamin Poke (Den) 70 72 75, Laurie Canter 76 67 74, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 70 74 73, Rhys Enoch 72 73 72, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 72 75 70, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 72 70 75
218 Thorbjoern Olesen (Den) 74 72 72, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 73 73 72, Justin Walters (Rsa) 75 72 71, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den) 76 68 74, Clement Sordet (Fra) 71 73 74
219 Justin Harding (Rsa) 77 69 73, Ashun Wu (Chn) 69 76 74, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 71 72 76, David Drysdale 72 72 75, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 74 73 72, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 75 72 72, Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den) 74 73 72
220 Yikeun Chang (Kor) 72 75 73, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp) 75 71 74, Paul Peterson (USA) 72 75 73
221 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 76 71 74, Rasmus Hojgaard (Den) 75 70 76, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 74 70 77
222 Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 72 73 77, Johannes Veerman (USA) 81 66 75
223 Stephen Gallacher 74 73 76, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 71 76 76, Josh Geary (Nzl) 72 73 78
224 Cormac Sharvin 71 75 78
225 Toby Tree 74 71 80
226 Pedro Oriol (Esp) 73 74 79
228 Emilio Cuartero (Esp) 71 75 82

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