Sunday 24 May 2015 19:28, UK
Byeong Hun An celebrated a "life-changing" victory after storming to a commanding six-shot win at the BMW PGA Championship.
The 23-year-old, who became the youngest winner of the US Amateur Championship in 2009, fulfilled the promise he showed as an amateur as he produced a faultless closing 65 to clinch his maiden European Tour title in his rookie season.
An started the final day tied for the lead with Francesco Molinari, but he showed no signs of nerves on the biggest day of his career as he won by a handsome margin ahead of Miguel Angel Jimenez and Thongchai Jaidee.
Going into the back-nine just one ahead, An converted a sublime approach to three feet for birdie at 11 and almost holed his 191-yard second to the 12th for an albatross, but the tap-in eagle gave him control of the tournament that he would never come close to relinquishing.
An is just the third player to win the European Tour's flagship event on debut and claimed the first prize of £600,000, and he now moves from 132nd in the world rankings to inside the top 60 as a result - securing his place in the US Open and Open Championship.
Fifth major
"It's like a fifth major to me. It's the biggest title I have won and gets me into a lot of events. This is life-changing," An said. "I'm still really excited and over the moon right now.
"I wasn't expecting this. I didn't know that a win was this close. It came all of a sudden. I've been playing well all year but I never thought I would win this event.
It's like a fifth major to me. It's the biggest title I have won and gets me into a lot of events. This is life-changing
"I played really well today. I was nervous at the start of the day but confident on every hole because I was hitting it well and putting nicely. I made some mistakes but being bogey-free I think is very good out here.
"It was great to go into the last hole with a six-shot lead and I love that I'm the first Asian to win this event. It's great."
Jaidee tipped An to be major player in the coming years after becoming the first Asian winner of the tournament. He said: "It is nice to see an Asian boy win the tournament. This is a big tournament in Europe and he played really solid today. He's very young and he has more confidence now. He can be the star player of the future."
