Hamish Brown (-19) is the champion of the Hainan Open. The Dane arrived at the event as one of the big favourites for the title. In fact, he was the best player of the year present at the tournament, arriving as the fourth best-ranked of the season, and the top three were not participating. In golf, it is very daring to say it like this, but the Dane has lived up to expectations and has taken the trophy.
He won with a lot of struggle and a great final sprint. In the crucial moment, he was the best. Brown arrived at the tee of the 15th hole three strokes behind. It was a great day of golf for him with a score of four under par, but the reality was that it was insufficient. The Filipino Lloyd Jefferson Go was unstoppable with a record of six strokes under par and with an eagle included, he reached -20.
There emerged the best Brown, who was able to make two more birdies in the final stretch, and Go felt the pressure. He committed his first bogey of the day on the 16th hole. The Dane finished in the group ahead with a birdie that forced the Filipino to do the same if he wanted to lift the trophy. He didn’t manage it, and everything would be decided in the playoff. There, Brown was able to repeat the birdie he had achieved on the 72nd hole and claim his second title of the season, which places him, by the way, on the podium of the annual ranking.
With this victory, there are now five players who have won at least twice this season: John Parry and Rasmus Neergard Pettersen with three, and Joel Moscatel, Joakim Lagergren, and now Hamish Brown with two. The podium of the Road is extremely competitive. Moreover, the Nordic dominance in the Circuit continues. This is the twelfth victory that goes to those lands. Six Danish wins, five Swedish, and one Norwegian. Almost 50% of the year’s victories.
The bitter side of the day was left by Borja Virto (-8). The Spaniard started tenth this Sunday and needed to secure a good haul to get closer to the Final de Mallorca. A final round of 75 strokes prevented him from competing for high stakes, and he finished the tournament in 28th place. He leaves Hainan 60th in the Road, exactly in the same position he arrived.
The round started with an early birdie on the 2nd hole that invited dreams of an important result, although he stumbled right after on the next flag. On the 5th hole came the fateful moment of the day. In the previous three rounds, Borja had settled that hole with a birdie. He was going all out. Well, the result was a painful triple bogey. He played the first ball from the tee but lost it in the slope of a bunker; despite searching, they couldn’t find it, and he had to return to the tee shot. With the second ball, he found the fairway, but trying to reach the green on the second shot, the ball ended up in a very bad position in the slope of another bunker, and he couldn’t recover well. The result, eight strokes that did a lot of damage and set him back significantly on the leaderboard. The Navarrese tried to maintain composure, and in the twelve holes remaining, he played level par, but at no point could he recover the deficit from that hole.
However, despite the disappointment, the chances for the Final de Mallorca remain intact. He has one more shot, and if he can maintain the level he has shown this week for 58 holes, he will have many chances to achieve it. It’s time to reset and play the season on the Challenge Tour with a single shot. This doesn’t stop, and Guangzhou starts in just five days.
Alongside Borja, the other three Spaniards who made the cut supported him in the standings. With two rounds of 69 strokes, Joel Moscatel and Ángel Ayora (-8) have recovered some positions on the leaderboard, and Víctor Pastor finished with his fourth consecutive round of 70 strokes. A quartet of Spaniards in 28th place.
The Cordoban continues in 74th place on the Road and will need a great result in Guangzhou if he wants to play the grand final of the season. Moscatel and Ayora are sixth and seventh, respectively, having lost a place to the Finn Lindell, who finished third.
Finally, Quim Vidal, who did not make the cut on Friday, has lost six positions and is in 43rd place. Just two spots above the final cut. He will need to stay focused next week. The margin is over.
