Paratore fell agonizingly close to a bogey-free tournament but comfortably converted his 3rd round lead to win by 4 strokes. His streak came to an end after 63 holes but a final round of 69 helped him cruise to victory. He led by one stroke coming into the final round and added another stroke lead at the 4th followed by another one at the 7th. By getting a stroke at the 7th, Paratore completed a full house having to birdie the 7th on the first three days.
After 62 holes. Paratore missed the green on the 9th hole with his tee shot and couldn’t save par on the relatively short hole. He got a stroke back the very next hole but once again bogeyed the 11th to stay at 11 under par. By this, the weather conditions had become tough and was becoming rather tough for his challengers to gain strokes. Paratore began to play safe golf from thereon. He parred the next few holes until the penultimate hole where he held a 10-foot long put to effectively seal the victory.
This was Paratore’s first win since joining the European tour 3 years ago. He brought out his iPad to celebrate with his mother before being given a guard of honour by his peers whilst leaving the green. Rasmus Hojgaard who beat Paratore in a play-off at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open last December found it tough to stay in touch with Paratore. The 19-year-old found it tough to catch up with Italian Paratore with the worsening weather conditions. He did birdie the 10th hole to show signs of a late charge but couldn’t gain a stroke until the penultimate hole with a bogey at the 15th not helping his cause.
The European Tour’s #GolfForGood campaign also raised over £100,000 for good causes in the local community, with sponsors Betfred donating £50,000 thanks to Jack Senior’s hole-in-one on Friday and a further £1,000 for each of the 16 birdies made by tournament host Lee Westwood throughout the week.
