It was an emotional end to the Made in Himmerland which saw one of the home soil Danish players win the tourney in its final staging after a long wait for a home win.
Rasmus Hojgaard was somewhat shell-shocked speaking to reporters after finally getting over the line, saying he was “speechless” to pull off an “amazing” home win.
It was a dramatic finish ahead of one of the biggest tournaments of the DP World Tour season kicking off on Thursday in Scotland.
The Genesis Scottish Open will see one of the best fields of the year line up to take a snap at a total prize fund of nearly €9million, three times this weekend gone’s pot, including in-form American Rickie Fowler.
Some of the Irish scheduled to take part will include our big guns, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, alongside Seamus Power and one of the hottest seniors of the moment, legend Padraig Harrington.
The Made in Himmerland finale saw the Dane Højgaard hold off Nach Elvira after coming from seven shots behind to finish level with the Spaniard on 13 under par.
Speaking straight af6ter his victory, Hojgaard said: “I’m speechless at the moment.
“To be fair, I didn’t think I’d end up in a play-off – it’s quite amazing. To win a home event, it’s amazing.
“It isn’t that long ago that I was one of those kids trying to get balls and signed gloves, so it’s cool to see them out here supporting us.
“This is better than I could ever dream of. We’ve wanted a Danish winner for so long now, so to be the first one to do it is amazing.”
It was Højgaard’s fourth DP World Tour win and extended his perfect record in play-offs, having won the 2019 Afrasia Bank Mauritius Open and the following year’s ISPS HANDA UK Championship in the same manner.
In the play-off, Højgaard got up and down from the bunker to par the first and take it to a second, where Elvira did likewise.
Højgaard’s pin-high approach third time round gave him the advantage but his putt shaved the hole, and they shared the next two holes as well.
At the sixth extra hole, though, Elvira flew his second shot out of bounds into the practice grounds leaving Højgaard to two-putt for a victory which lifts him from 67th to 12th on theRace to Dubai Presented by Rolex.
Elvira had some consolation as he took one of the took the three Open Championship places on offer to the highest finishers not already exempt. The others went to Samooja and Marc Warren who shared fourth place with MacIntyre and Alexander Bjork on 11 under.
Matthew Southgate shot 61, the best round of the week, to finish nine under. The Englishman was threatening a 59 after a run of five straight birdies to the 17th but, needing another at the last, he instead sent his tee-shot into the water and made a bogey five.
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