Alfred Dunhill Links Championship: Victor Perez wins his maiden Tour event at St Andrews
- Published
Victor Perez, left, celebrates just seconds after scoring a final-round 70 at St Andrews
Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Old Course St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns (third round) |
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-22 V Perez (Fra); -21 M Southgate (Eng); -20 P Waring (Eng), J Lagergren (Swe); -19 T Lewis (Eng), J Smith (Eng), T Fleetwood (Eng), M Jordan (Eng), J Wang (Kor) |
Selected others: -18 L Donald (Eng), R Ramsay (Sco); -17 R Knox (Sco); -15 R MacIntyre, R McIlroy, -14 J Rose (Eng) |
Rookie Victor Perez says his maiden European Tour title at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship has "proved" he can "do it at this level".
Dundee-based Perez, 27, claimed first place in his 29th appearance after posting a final-round 70 at St Andrews.
He narrowly missed his 12-foot birdie putt at the last but a close-range par was good enough to see him win by one shot to edge out England's Matthew Southgate.
"It's a huge win," said Perez.
Southgate finished alone in second on 21 under after he also parred the last.
Perez lives just a few miles away from St Andrews in Dundee, and said that winning there had made the achievement mean more to him.
"I couldn't be more happy to have my first win at the home of golf," he told BBC Scotland.
"It's proved to me I can do it at this level. You go through ebbs and flows in golf, you can play great and not get anything out of it. Sometimes you can play poorly and have a decent finish. It's amazing when you can put it all together, and have a bit of fortune.
"Living 20 minutes from here makes it more special. People are going to look at me differently now which I'll enjoy. The culture in Scotland helps me, here people live golf."
Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy shot a final round of 67, but that was only enough to earn him a joint-26th finish.
Ryder Cup team-mates Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrell Hatton were three and five shots off top spot respectively, while Justin Rose was further down the leaderboard on 14-under par.
Watch the highlights of the final day at St Andrews at 22:50 on BBC Scotland.