Canizares cruises to victory in Morocco

Alejandro Canizares ended an eight year wait for a European title when cruising to a five shot win in the Trophee Hassan II in Agadir on Sunday.

 

"It's been a long time since the last win," Canizares saidGADIR, March 16, 2014 (AFP) - The Spaniard, whose last victory was in the 2006 Russian Open, led from the start after a first round 62 and wrapped up the victory with a closing round of 70 to finish with a 19 under par total of 269.

England's Andy Sullivan produced a best of the day round of 63 to claim second place, with Swede Magnus Carlsson signing for a 68 to finish two shots adrift and in a tie for third with England's Seve Benson, who birdied the last.

Carlsson was helped by holing from off the green on the 18th after engineering a left-handed escape shot from the trees.

As for Canizares, he ended with a double bogey six after his approach rolled off the green and came to a stop beside a badly replaced divot.

The world number 141 was told by a referee he was not allowed to move the turf and could only advance the ball a few yards with his third shot before it again rolled back down the slop almost to his feet.

From there he duffed his next pitch before getting up and down to seal victory.

"It's been a long time since the last win," he said.

"It felt like it was never coming but this week I played great, some of the best golf of my career. I hit good shot after good shot and kept my focus.

"I was very accurate and solid with my irons. I left myself lots of chances and although I did not make all of them, the first day was the key. I putted great the first day, shot 10 under and just kept pushing on.

"Hopefully this is the first step for a little bit of improvement in my career. I have some stuff to work on and hopefully I improve little by little to the point where I can play golf as naturally as I did this week."

For the 31-year-old Canizares this success ended a 199-event losing streak after claiming the Russian Open eight years ago in only his third ever tournament.

Scores of the fourth round in the Trophee Hassan II at Golf du Palais Royal, Agadir, Morocco on Sunday (GBR/IRL unless stated, par 72):

269 - Alejandro Canizares (ESP) 62 68 69 70

274 - Andrew Sullivan 66 73 72 63

276 - Magnus A Carlsson (SWE) 65 71 72 68, Seve Benson 63 68 74 71

277 - Richard Bland 69 70 70 68, Wade Ormsby (AUS) 68 71 70 68, Rafael Cabrera Bello (ESP) 68 67 75 67

278 - Paul Waring 72 69 67 70, David Horsey 72 64 72 70, Tom Lewis 69 74 70 65

280 - Robert Karlsson (SWE) 71 67 70 72, Lucas Bjerregaard (DEN) 69 73 71 67, Brett Rumford (AUS) 73 71 70 66, Richie Ramsay 72 71 68 69, Jorge Campillo (ESP) 71 69 70 70, George Coetzee (RSA) 69 69 74 68

281 - Robert Jan Derksen (NED) 69 70 67 75, Shiv Kapur (IND) 70 71 67 73, Marc Warren 66 73 70 72, Stephen Dodd 68 73 71 69, Gregory Bourdy (FRA) 68 69 74 70, Jens Dantorp (SWE) 73 71 69 68

282 - Tommy Fleetwood 66 72 73 71, James Morrison 69 69 75 69

283 - Adrien Saddier (FRA) 72 72 69 70, Daniel Im (USA) 71 73 69 70, Kristoffer Broberg (SWE) 75 70 72 66, Rhys Davies 68 73 71 71, Edoardo Molinari (ITA) 73 70 74 66

Selected

284 - Richard Green (AUS) 70 73 69 72

286 - Connor Arendell (USA) 65 71 76 74

291 - Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 67 73 74 77