Daniel Gavins holed an enormous putt at the 18th to win his second DP World Tour title in memorable fashion as the 2023 Ras Al Khaimah Championship reached a dramatic conclusion.
The 31-year-old held a two-shot lead as he headed to the 18th tee but found the water twice at the last to seriously dent his chances of winning the title.
But with nearest challenger Alexander Björk finishing his round with a bogey up ahead, Gavins had a double-bogey putt from around 30 feet to set the new target at 17 under par.
And he duly holed it to limit the damage to two dropped shots, but there were still twists and turns to come as third-round leader Zander Lombard gave himself an eagle chance on the last to potentially force a play-off.
But South African Lombard narrowly missed his putt from 24 feet to hand Gavins a second title to add to the ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by Modest! Golf Management crown he won in 2021.
Gavins closed with a roller-coaster 69 that contained eight birdies – including five in a row from the second hole – as well as three bogeys and his closing double bogey.
Björk and Lombard were in a tie for second on 16 under, with Adrian Meronk and Thorbjørn Olesen another shot further back.
Winner’s Quotes
Daniel Gavins: I feel speechless, to be honest. I just want to quickly thank my mum and dad – I forgot to thank them last time when I won! They’ve been great for me and they’ve supported me throughout my career, so massive thanks to those two, and especially my girlfriend as well.
I’ve been struggling off the tee for the last two weeks and it’s not a very nice tee-shot to have (on the 18th), even with a two-shot lead. I’ve had a bit of an open face and been battling, just playing with what I’ve got on the day.
It was a difficult hole to get through and fortunately I holed a 30-footer. To be fair, I thought I was holing that for the play-off! I didn’t realise Björk had made a bogey.
I thought I had (given the tournament away). I put two in the water and thought ‘Well that’s one way to end the tournament really’. When I sunk the putt and then went to the back of the green and saw that I was actually winning still, it was kind of a big shock.
I knew (I was ahead at the turn) just wanted to keep it going. I knew 9, 10, 11, 12 were tricky holes so I said to my caddie ‘If we can stay level through these four, concentrate on these holes one at a time and maybe pick a few up coming in. Just ended up holding on.
I was pretty relaxed all day, I felt good, even though my swing off the tee wasn’t great. Was just playing with what I had. I felt quite a lot (of pressure) on the 18th, but apart from that it was a pretty calm day.
It’s only the start of the year so there’s a lot of golf to play. If I can keep on gaining confidence from positions like this, that’s all I can do. It feels great.
