Bernd Wiesberger beat Tommy Fleetwood in a play-off to win the Shenzhen International – his fourth European Tour title – on a dramatic final day at Genzon Golf Club.
Making his 200th appearance on the European Tour, the Austrian entered the final round with a three-shot lead and eight shots ahead of Fleetwood but the Englishman fired a stunning 63 to set the clubhouse target and share top spot at 16 under.
Wiesberger made excellent par saves on the 12th and 17th and nearly hit the pin with his approach to the last but was forced to settle for a par and a trip back up the 18th with Fleetwood for a play-off. He went on to put his approach to five feet and roll in the putt for a birdie and victory on debut at the tournament.
The 31 year old has not missed a cut since the 2016 US PGA Championship, producing seven top five finishes in that time, and his first victory in a play-off after losing the previous three times.
England’s Ross Fisher (68) held a share of the lead stood on the 18th tee but a three-putt bogey saw him fall out of the play-off into a share of third at 15 under par alongside France’s Grégory Bourdy, a shot clear of South African Dylan Frittelli, American David Lipsky and Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti.
Thai Thongchai Jaidee, Frenchman Alexander Levy and Dane Thorbjørn Olesen were then at 13 under, with Coetzee, Spaniard Pablo Larrazábal and local favourite Lui Yan-Wei a further shot back.
Player Quotes:
Bernd Wiesberger
“I’m feeling a bit relieved now I have to say. I’ve had a stretch of really good events the last couple of months and it’s really nice to have a trophy again.
“We have really good players out here, all up for it, playing well and throwing a lot at me. At the end of the day I’m just glad I got myself into the spot where I could play for the title.
“Tommy (Fleetwood) has had a great day today and I’m just grateful to make that one shot when I needed to.
“I just wanted to get off to a good start and show them that I’m up for it and I did, scrapped around a little bit, had a couple of near misses with good looks at it early on. It could have gotten to me but I stayed calm, played on decently.”
Tommy Fleetwood
“I’ve played well all week and I was really disappointed, it was stressing me out that I couldn’t really get anything in the hole.”
“Today, just a few putts went in and I kept it going all the way through and it was a good time to shoot a 63.
“As a goal I wanted to be one under for every three holes, that was 66 and if I beat that I thought I’ll have had a good day and a good week.”
Grégory Bourdy
“I finished strong and actually it was a nice week. A lot of positives, I hit some great drives and great putts – but I just felt confident during the week, and I feel like my game is here and I would like to get a win again soon.
Dylan Frittelli
“I made a bunch of pars, and a few birdies, a bit of a struggle on the greens today but I think I faired pretty well and I’m happy with the whole week’s performance
“This being my rookie season, it’s great to get a top-ten and finally crack through, I have had a lot of top-twenties in the last few events, so I haven’t really finished strong on the last nine but I did that today, I held on and did well.
“I’m feeling really good – next week we head on to Beijing – hopefully this form can continue there and throughout the rest of the season as well.
Final scores:
272 B Wiesberger (Aut) 67 65 69 71, T Fleetwood (Eng) 69 71 69 63,
273 R Fisher (Eng) 71 65 69 68, G Bourdy (Fra) 67 69 70 67,
274 F Zanotti (Par) 71 70 68 65, D Lipsky (USA) 73 65 67 69, D Frittelli (RSA) 68 68 68 70,
275 A Levy (Fra) 74 68 64 69, T Olesen (Den) 68 68 72 67, T Jaidee (Tha) 67 72 70 66,
276 G Coetzee (RSA) 70 68 67 71, L Yan-Wei (Chn) 69 71 66 70, P Larrazábal (Esp) 72 71 67 66,
277 J Smith (Eng) 69 69 69 70, E De La Riva (Esp) 68 73 69 67, M Southgate (Eng) 72 71 69 65, B Ritthammer (Ger) 69 73 69 66, D Im (USA) 69 70 69 69, A Björk (Swe) 71 67 71 68, B Rumford (Aus) 72 67 68 70,
278 K Aphibarnrat (Tha) 75 66 70 67, R Ramsay (Sco) 69 68 72 69, M Armitage (Eng) 71 71 68 68, S Jamieson (Sco) 69 69 73 67,
279 N Elvira (Esp) 71 74 68 66,
280 S Gallacher (Sco) 70 72 68 70, R Gouveia (Por) 72 72 69 67, B Watson (USA) 66 70 70 74,
281 P Hanson (Swe) 70 71 71 69, J Morrison (Eng) 70 66 74 71, J Luiten (Ned) 71 71 70 69, A Cañizares (Esp) 72 69 75 65,
282 A Dodt (Aus) 70 73 72 67, J Quesne (Fra) 71 68 71 72, P Uihlein (USA) 71 70 72 69, P Dunne (Irl) 70 72 70 70, M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 69 70 72 71, L Xue-Wen (Chn) 71 72 70 69,
283 M Manassero (Ita) 70 71 75 67, N Colsaerts (Bel) 75 70 71 67, M Korhonen (Fin) 74 68 71 70, D Burmester (RSA) 67 70 68 78, D Stewart (Sco) 71 67 74 71, L Yuxin (Chn) 74 67 70 72,
284 B Hebert (Fra) 72 70 71 71, M Ilonen (Fin) 73 71 68 72, H Porteous (RSA) 67 73 72 72, B Stone (RSA) 74 71 64 75, J Scrivener (Aus) 70 72 70 72, M Kieffer (Ger) 67 72 73 72,
285 R Fox (Nzl) 71 71 69 74, S Brazel (Aus) 71 74 69 71,
286 L Bjerregaard (Den) 71 74 71 70, R Wattel (Fra) 71 73 71 71, R Bland (Eng) 73 71 71 71, C Zi-Hao (Chn) 73 69 72 72,
287 H Ze-Yu (Chn) 72 72 70 73, Z Hui-Lin (Chn) 71 74 70 72, G Storm (Eng) 74 68 74 71, R Karlberg (Swe) 74 70 70 73, W Ormsby (Aus) 71 69 76 71, W Hongfu (Chn) 72 69 76 70, D Drysdale (Sco) 70 72 73 72,
289 P Peterson (USA) 74 71 70 74, Y Tian (Chn) 71 73 71 74, J Walters (RSA) 73 70 74 72,
290 A Knappe (Ger) 74 70 72 74, G Havret (Fra) 70 71 78 71,
292 H Wen-Yi (Chn) 71 74 74 73,
293 E Molinari (Ita) 75 70 73 75,
294 J Lagergren (Swe) 72 72 81 69,
295 C Paisley (Eng) 72 73 76 74,
298 L Ding-Feng (Chn) 69 75 79 75,
146 J Da-Xing (Chn) 75 71 0 0, C Pigem (Esp) 75 71 0 0, B Dredge (Wal) 74 72 0 0, W Ashun (Chn) 71 75 0 0, C Hanson (Eng) 70 76 0 0, R Langasque (Fra) 70 76 0 0,
147 R Jacquelin (Fra) 78 69 0 0, X Bowen (Chn) 78 69 0 0, S Zi-Han (Chn) 77 70 0 0, J Van Zyl (RSA) 75 72 0 0, N Fasth (Swe) 75 72 0 0, A Otaegui (Esp) 74 73 0 0, F Aguilar (Chi) 74 73 0 0, Z Guo-Wu (Chn) 74 73 0 0, P Waring (Eng) 73 74 0 0, P Edberg (Swe) 73 74 0 0,
148 M Pavon (Fra) 79 69 0 0, C Hai-Meng (Chn) 76 72 0 0, S Hend (Aus) 73 75 0 0, R Paratore (Ita) 73 75 0 0, J Campillo (Esp) 72 76 0 0, D Howell (Eng) 70 78 0 0,
149 T Rongjian (Chn) 75 74 0 0, A Chesters (Eng) 75 74 0 0, H Zeming (Chn) 72 77 0 0, M Siem (Ger) 71 78 0 0,
150 L Xin-Yang (Chn) 80 70 0 0, J Carlsson (Swe) 79 71 0 0, W Tu-Xuan (Chn) 78 72 0 0, Z Wei-Yu (Chn) 76 74 0 0, J Lima (Por) 76 74 0 0, Z Jin (Chn) 75 75 0 0, S Lee (Kor) 75 75 0 0, C Shinkwin (Eng) 75 75 0 0, L Haotong (Chn) 75 75 0 0, Y Guang-Ming (Chn) 74 76 0 0, W Xu (Chn) 73 77 0 0, M Carlsson (Swe) 72 78 0 0,
151 Z Lianwei (Chn) 80 71 0 0, K Broberg (Swe) 78 73 0 0, D Brooks (Eng) 76 75 0 0, L Slattery (Eng) 75 76 0 0, L Jensen (Den) 75 76 0 0, X Yixin (Chn) 75 76 0 0, N Bertasio (Ita) 75 76 0 0, L Xiaofei (Chn) 74 77 0 0, D Perrier (Fra) 73 78 0 0,
152 L Chun (Chn) 77 75 0 0, D Fichardt (RSA) 75 77 0 0, S Walker (Eng) 75 77 0 0, W Wei-Huang (Chn) 75 77 0 0, R Karlsson (Swe) 73 79 0 0, H Mu (Chn) 73 79 0 0, G Stal (Fra) 73 79 0 0,
153 S Yan (Chn) 80 73 0 0, Y Yi-Nong (Chn) 79 74 0 0, M Yiyuan (Chn) 76 77 0 0, O Zheng (Chn) 76 77 0 0, C Ding-Gen (Chn) 74 79 0 0,
154 C Yi (Chn) 80 74 0 0, Y Hao (Chn) 79 75 0 0, C Changping (Chn) 75 79 0 0, W Dongyu (Chn) 75 79 0 0,
155 Y Bin (Chn) 76 79 0 0,
156 H Ren (Chn) 78 78 0 0, Y Jian-Feng (Chn) 78 78 0 0, L Gui-Ming (Chn) 77 79 0 0,
157 X Qin (Chn) 82 75 0 0,
159 P Qihao (Chn) 81 78 0 0,
160 Z Shang (Chn) 80 80 0 0,
161 L Zehao (Chn) 84 77 0 0, L Fangyi (Chn) 83 78 0 0, P Angles (Esp) 78 83 0 0,
163 L Hao-Yuan (Chn) 86 77 0 0,
165 T Peiyi (Chn) 84 81 0 0,
** S Gros (Fra) 75 DQ 0 0, Y Yang (Kor) 79 RT 0 0, Z Jia (Chn) 80 RT 0 0, H Shao-Cai (Chn) 78 WD 0 0, V Dubuisson (Fra) 76 WD 0 0, S Dong (Chn) RT 0 0 0, N Holman (Aus) RT 0 0 0, S Dyson (Eng) RT 0 0 0,
PLEASE NOTE THE BELOW STATEMENT REGARDING DAVID HOWELL
At the conclusion of the final round of the Shenzhen International, England’s David Howell approached officials with concerns relating to his preferred lie on hole 15 during the second round. He was unsure if he had taken a preferred lie using the correct score card length or the incorrect club-length and therefore insisted on accepting the appropriate penalty.
He incurred a two strokes penalty for playing from a wrong place under rule 20-7 and an additional two strokes penalty under rule 6-6d for an incorrectly returned score card.
The four strokes penalty to the second round would have seen Howell missing the cut, therefore he will receive no prize money
