Sunday 25 June 2017 19:20, UK
Andres Romero celebrated a "life-changing" victory at the BMW International Open after his outstanding final round earned him his first title for nine years in Munich.
Romero was hugely grateful to be granted a sponsor's invite to the event having lost his card on both the PGA Tour and European Tour, and he began the week a lowly 837th in the world rankings.
But the Argentine has now accepted European Tour membership after claiming his second win in Germany almost 10 years after his first, which came in the same month as his close call in The Open at Carnoustie, where he made 10 birdies on the final day before dropping three shots over the last two holes to finish one behind Padraig Harrington and Sergio Garcia.
Romero birdied seven of the last 11 holes in Munich to complete a flawless 65 and clinch a thrilling one-shot win over Garcia, Richard Bland and Thomas Detry, and the 36-year-old can now look forward to a more secure future.
"I'm really happy, after ten years without winning on the European Tour, and especially here in Germany," said Romero, who had not posted a top-10 finish on Tour since the BMW PGA Championship nine years ago.
"The whole round was very good. I was focused all day. I didn't make any bogeys, that is a rare thing for my type of game. The last few holes I noticed I made seven birdies but the whole round was excellent.
"I was nervous when I got to the 18th green but finally when I was thinking with two putts I could win the tournament, I was really nervous. But hopefully I was going to do a two-putt and now I have my trophy and enjoy this moment.
"I haven't been in that position for a long time, so it felt a little funny, but only on that 18th hole because I was playing great golf. And then I was looking at the leaderboard and I saw that the other guys missed the green on 17, but I didn't want to look at that.
"I'm very happy that I'm going to be here on the European Tour again. I enjoy it here and I want to say thanks to the people at BMW because if it wasn't for them - they gave me an invite for this event - I wouldn't have any category now, and this is going to be life-changing."
Garcia came within inches of chipping in for eagle at the 72nd hole as he was denied his third win of the year, but the Masters champion was full of praise for Romero.
"It was a good week and I obviously fell just short, but I felt like I played well enough to win for sure," said the Spaniard. "Obviously there were a couple of missed putts here and there and some really good putts that didn't want to go in, so it was difficult to get anything going. And that chip on 18 looked pretty good but it just missed on the right side.
"You have to give credit to Andres. With no status, he's neither here on the European Tour or the PGA Tour, so to go out and shoot 65 today, I'm happy for him and we'll just keep trying.
"Any time you have a chance of winning, there's a lot of good things. I think that there were a lot of good ones there. I've just got to keep working hard and keep putting myself in these kind of situations."
