Simon Thornton of Ireland beat Tjaart Van der Walt on the first hole of a playoff at the Najeti Hotels Open to win his first European Tour title on Sunday.
Both players shot 1-under 70 in the final round, each parring the last six holes to finish at 5-under 279. In the playoff, Van der Walt of South Africa bogeyed No. 18 while Thornton made a short par putt to win the title.
Seve Benson of England shot 70 to finish third, one stroke back. Englishman Robert Dinwiddie was fourth after shooting 70 to total 282 — one stroke clear of compatriot Chris Lloyd and Sweden’s Pelle Edberg.
“I’ve been working hard on my short game for a couple of years now so I’m delighted,” Thornton said. “I changed my putter and my putting technique last week too, so it all came together this week.”
Thornton was joint-11th at this tournament last year. His only other top-10 finish on the European Tour was a ninth place at the BMW International Open in Munich in 2010.
The tearful Irishman dedicated the victory to his late father.
“It’s so big for me,” Thornton said. “On Father’s Day, too. He passed away three years ago and it still hurts, but they are happy tears today. This is dedicated to him.”
Thornton, Van der Walt and Frenchman Baptiste Chapellan went into the final round with a share of the lead. However, Chapellan fell out of contention after making six bogeys in a 77.
Van der Walt and Thornton swapped the lead on the front nine before Benson joined the hunt for the title on the back nine.
Thornton birdied the 10th to move one stroke clear of Van der Walt, but the South African rallied by picking up a shot on the 12th.
Benson hit two straight birdies to draw level atop the leaderboard but faded when he bogeyed the 16th.
“It’s really disappointing to get so close and not finish it off,” said Van der Walt, the runner-up at the Africa Open last year.
Van der Walt led on Thursday and shared the lead in the last three rounds.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB