Crans Montana, Switzerland
While everyone was watching Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy and Jamie Donaldson, Thomas Bjorn went wild over his final five holes at Crans-sur-Sierre and walked away with the title at the Omega European Masters.
Bjorn, the Great Dane, rolled in a 15-foot eagle putt at the par five 15th that was the followup to a birdie at 14 then he finished off with birdies at the 17th and 18th, to finish with a nine-under par 62 that got him to 20-under par. He won easily by four shots over Martin Kaymer, who was red-hot on the front nine, but finished with nine straight pars.
Kaymer eagled two of his first five holes, shot 30 then came home with 35 for 65 to post 16-under, 268, four off Bjorn's winning total of 264.
For the first time in his long career, Bjorn took back-to-back victories on the European Tour after his triumph last week at the Johnnie Walker. It was his 13th European Tour victory and his third title of this 2011 season.
The rainy day brought no fireworks from the lead group of third round leader Jamie Donaldson, Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy. McIlroy got off to the birdie-birdie start he wanted but didn't do enough the rest of the day and finished with a 68 that got him to 15-under where he tied for third with Donaldson (70) and South Africa's Jaco Van Zyl, who closed with a 64.
Westwood's 70 left him tied for sixth at 14-under with fellow Brit David Lynn and Sweden's Fredrik Andersson-Hed.
On this day, there was no catching Bjorn, who may be the hottest golfer on the planet. "The way I finished was special and it's been an amazing two weeks," Bjorn admitted. "I started hitting my wedges so well last week and kept it going. At the end, you think nothing can go wrong. Golf seems easy sometimes and you have to remember that when you are not playing well."
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