Thomas Pieters claims first European Tour title at Czech Masters
Sunday 30 August 2015 17:55, UK
Thomas Pieters fought off the challenge of Pelle Edberg to take a three-shot victory at the Czech Masters and claim a maiden European Tour title.
Pieters lost his overnight lead to Edberg early on in his final round, but recovered to card a three-under 69 and secure victory at Albatross Golf Resort.
Heading in to the final round one-shot clear, Pieters opened with a birdie at the par-five first but slipped off the top of the leaderboard with a double-bogey at the short third.
Back-to-back gains around the turn saw Pieters pull back level with Edberg, also chasing his first win on the Tour, before a dropped shot from the Swede at the 11th put the Belgian back in control.
A ten-foot gain at the 13th extended Pieters' advantage and with Edberg unable to make any inroads over the closing holes, the Belgian sealed his success in style with a birdie at the last.
"To be a European Tour winner is an amazing feeling right now," Pieters said. "Right now it means everything, you work for it all year long, up till now my whole life. I played really well after making an early double."
Edberg closed the week with a one-under 71 to end in outright second, with second-round leader Matthew Fitzpatrick a further shot off the pace after being unable to convert a strong start in to anything lower than a 68.
The 20-year-old started his round with four consecutive birdies and briefly moved within one of the lead after a gain at the tenth, but saw his hopes end with successive bogeys at the 15th and 16th.
"A good week for me. I got off to a great start today and it would have been nice to carry that on," Fitzpatrick said. "I gave myself really good chances to carry that on, but sort of stalled on the back nine and never really got anything going.
"It's very disappointing obviously, but I keep coming close and need to keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully it'll eventually come. It was always going to be difficult starting five behind."
Five gains over the back nine from Graeme Storm helped the Englishman to a round-of-the-day 66 to end the week eight under, with Victor Dubuisson, the highest ranked player in the field, part of the group a further stroke back.
