Kiradech Aphibarnrat wins Shenzhen International in play-off
Sunday 19 April 2015 16:24, UK
Kiradech Aphibarnrat claimed his second European Tour victory with a thrilling play-off win at the Shenzhen International in China.
The Thai made up two shots on leader Li Hao-Tong over the last two holes of regulation and then produced a superb birdie at the first play-off hole to deny the 19-year-old Chinese player a career-defining victory on home soil.
Aphibarnrat led by as many as five shots on Saturday before dropping three strokes in his last two holes, and he continued to struggle on the front nine of his final round.
He frittered away shots at the fifth and seventh to lose the lead, and got back into contention with birdies at the eighth and ninth before hitting trouble again.
With the leaderboard packed - some 24 players were covered by three shots at one point - Aphibarnrat found himself up against it when he bogeyed the 15th to drop two strokes behind a charging Li.
The teenager made four birdies on the back nine and took a two-shot lead when he birdied the long 17th, with his par at the last meaning a closing round of 67 and a 12-under-par finish.
Fleetwood falls short
With the remaining challengers falling by the wayside, England's Tommy Fleetwood was the only other player in with a chance when he came to the 18th on 11 under.
Fleetwood found the green at the last, albeit at least 60 feet from the cup, but his double-breaking putt was a matter of inches from the cup as he missed out on the chance of a play-off.
That left Aphibarnrat to try and make up the deficit, and he did so in sensational fashion at the 17th with an eagle to tie Li for the lead.
His drive at the last found sand, but Aphibarnrat produced a superb recovery to find the green and leave himself around 15 feet for the win - he misread the putt and it snuck past the right edge, but it would prove still to be a very valuable miss.
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The play-off saw Li and Aphibarnrat go back to the 18th tee, and both players found the fairway and then the green with their approaches - Li around 40 feet away and Aphibarnrat inside 12 feet on just about exactly the same line as his missed putt 20 minutes earlier.
Li rushed his putt six or so feet past the hole, leaving Aphibarnrat with the chance for the win, which he took with aplomb to secure the title and add to his victory in the 2013 Malaysian Open.
Fleetwood finished in third place on his own, ahead of a seven-way tie for fourth involving Julian Quesne, Marco Crespi, Huang Wen-Yi, David Howell, Tom Lewis, YE Yang and Peter Uihlein.
The European Tour stays in China next week for the Volvo China Open. Live coverage begins Thursday at 5.30am on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf.
