Italian Open: Bernd Wiesberger wins by one from Matthew Fitzpatrick
- Published
Wiesberger and friends celebrate his Italian Open triumph
Italian Open final leaderboard |
|---|
-16 B Wiesberger (Aut); -15 M Fitzpatrick (Eng); -12 K Kitayama (US); -11 M Schwab (Aut), A Johnston (Eng), R MacIntyre (Sco); -9 S Sharma (Ind), F Laporta (Ita), M Wallace (Eng); -8 J Walters (SA), R Sabbatini (Svk), E van Rooyen (SA), A Pavan (Ita), J Wang (Kor) |
Selected others: -7 J Rose (Eng), G McDowell (NI); -6 D Willett (Eng); +2 L Westwood (Eng) |
Austrian Bernd Wiesberger moved to the top of the Race to Dubai list after winning the Italian Open by one shot.
The 34-year-old rises to a career-best 22 in the world rankings after a bogey-free six-under 65 for a 16-under total.
England's Matthew Fitzpatrick led since the second round but had a double bogey at the ninth and was second after a 69, with Scot Robert MacIntyre tied fourth.
Justin Rose took 14 fewer shots than in the third round, his 64 leaving him seven under for a share of 15th.
Wiesberger began the final round three shots back but was at the top of the leaderboard into the back nine after four birdies in five holes, with Fitzpatrick taking seven at the ninth, having sent his tee shot out of bounds.
The Austrian holed from the back of the 12th green to save par, while Fitzpatrick missed a birdie chance from inside five feet at the 11th.
Fitzpatrick, putting with the flagstick in, saw his eagle chance from 10 feet at the 17th out spin out of the cup and he could only par the final hole as Wiesberger celebrated his sixth European title, his third of the year after taking the Made in Denmark crown by a shot ahead of MacIntyre in May and winning the Scottish Open in a play-off in July.
"It's been a great summer for me," said Wiesberger, who missed the last seven months of the 2018 season with a wrist injury. "I've had a lot of good golf and shown a lot of progress after coming back from the last year."
It was a fourth second-place finish of the season for Yorkshireman Fitzpatrick, who remains without a victory in 2019, having won a tournament each year since his maiden European triumph in 2015.