Sergio Garcia cruises to Singapore Open victory

Image: Sergio Garcia displays the winner's trophy after his Singapore Open success

Sergio Garcia has made a winning start to his season after wrapping up a five-shot victory in the SMBC Singapore Open at Sentosa Golf Club.

The Masters champion played 27 holes without dropping a shot in the weather-hit tournament on Sunday and showed his class as he pulled clear of the field to finish on 14-under 270.

After storm delays on the first three days, the players returned to the course early on Sunday to complete their third rounds.

Garcia stood at seven under after nine holes of his third round, two shots behind Thai joint-leaders Chapchai Nirat and Danthai Boonma.

The world No 10 clearly found the early-morning conditions to his liking as he started out with back-to-back birdies on the 10th and 11th.

Advertisement

He added further birdies at the two par-threes - 14 and 17 - to post a five-under 66, which put him one stroke ahead of Nirat (68) and Boonma (65) on 11 under going into the final round.

Garcia, 38, had struggled a little with his putter on Saturday but those issues were now firmly behind him as he took a firm grip on the tournament by kicking off his fourth round with a birdie.

Also See:

Image: Garcia waves to the crowd after wrapping up the victory

Back-to-back birdies at the seventh and eighth, following a superb approach and monster putt, then put daylight between the Spaniard and the field and he was able to coast to his 33rd professional victory with 10 straight pars from the ninth for a three-under 68.

"I played nicely but it wasn't easy," said Garcia. "There were some very challenging holes but I played very well and then was just steady on the back nine to make sure I wasn't making any bogeys.

"It was a great week overall. You still need to hit a lot of good shots to do well here and I was able to do that. Hopefully I can ride on this momentum."

Image: Shaun Norris finished tied for second behind Garcia

Japan's Satoshi Kodaira (71) and South African Shaun Norris (70) shared second place on nine under after they both birdied the final hole, but the duo were never in reach of Garcia.

Boonma, whose hopes of victory disappeared after a double bogey at the third and back-to-back bogeys at the eighth and ninth in his 73, had to settle for a share of fourth place with fellow Thai Jazz Janewattananond (71) on eight under.

The duo had the consolation of earning a place in the 147th Open at Carnoustie in July - the Singapore Open is the third event of 12 events in The Open Qualifying Series - along with American Sean Crocker (69), who tied for sixth place with Australian Open champion Cameron Davis (70), and Australia's Lucas Herbert.

Nirat's challenge was ended by a triple-bogey eight on the seventh and his closing 77 left him joint-16th on four under alongside Japan's Ryo Ishikawa (71).

Outbrain