Monday 17 October 2016 09:34, UK
Alex Noren survived a testing final day to clinch his third European Tour victory of the season with a two-shot win at the British Masters supported by Sky Sports.
After the start of the final round was delayed by torrential rain which flooded the greens at The Grove and forced early scores to be scrapped, Noren overcame a mid-round stutter with birdies at two of the last four holes to fire a 69 for an impressive winning score of 18 under par.
Bernd Wiesberger briefly drew level with the Swede down the stretch but had to settle for outright second place, while Lee Westwood put a difficult month behind him as a closing 67 earned him a podium finish.
Noren jumped out to the ideal start and gave a good indication of his ability to thrive under pressure as he matched the opening two birdies of playing-partner and closest challenger Richard Bland.
But the problems he encountered with the driver in Saturday's third round resurfaced and, although he put together a run of five pars to maintain his advantage, he opened the door for the field with a bogey at the eighth - his first blemish since his final hole of round two.
Bland had bogeyed the seventh but hit back to force a two-shot swing at the eighth with his third birdie, and Wiesberger suddenly became a huge factor in the outcome when he followed an outward 33 with another birdie at the 10th.
Noren then dropped another shot after a wayward drive at the 11th as his lead was reduced to a single shot over Bland and Wiesberger, and when the Austrian rolled in his fifth birdie putt of the day at the 15th he was tied at the top with the faltering Swede.
But Noren recovered from another missed fairway at the long 15th with an unlikely birdie which took him back into the outright lead, advancing a three-wood from the right rough up the fairway before pitching to 10 feet and getting the slippery putt to drop in the side of the cup.
Bland then took himself out of contention when he came up short at 16 and failed to get up and down, and he followed that with another bogey at the 17th, and he could do no better than a par at the last to complete a disappointing 71 which leaves him still searching for a first victory after 395 attempts.
Wiesberger missed a great chance for birdie at 16 and had one last chance to apply the pressure at the par-five last, but he paid the price for putting his ambitious second in the deep bunker short of the green, from where he was unable to salvage a birdie as he signed for a 67 to take the clubhouse lead away from Lee Westwood on 16 under.
Noren was 30 yards short of the final green in two and facing a testing pitch to the flag on the top tier, but he held his nerve to play a sublime pitch to within 18 inches of the cup, leaving him the simplest of tap-ins to become the first three-time winner on the European Tour this season.
Westwood sparked hopes of a late charge when he made back-to-back birdies around the turn, but a bogey at 12 set him back and, although he got the shot back at the next, a run of four pars left him too far back and a closing birdie ensured third place on 15 under.
Graeme McDowell could not build on a birdie-birdie start as a 68 left him tied for fourth on 13 under with Alex Levy, Peter Hanson, Tommy Fleetwood and Bland, with last week's winner Tyrrell Hatton a further shot off the pace.