Published July 17, 2008 on September 16, 2019

Garcia Claims Victory on KLM Open Debut

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Sergio Garcia secured his 16th European Tour title following a one-shot victory on his debut at the 100th edition of the KLM Open.

The Spaniard endured a mixed front nine where he was leading by two at the fifth, only to be trailing playing partner Callum Shinkwin by one shot at the seventh following back to back bogeys at The International.

However, a double-bogey at the tenth by the Englishman handed Garcia the initiative and the 39-year-old used his experience to hold off the chasing pack by a single stroke with an 18 under par total.

Danish rising star Nicolai Højgaard, making just his seventh European Tour start, surged into contention and was briefly joint leader with four holes remaining, but came up just short in sole second.

Matt Wallace was third at 15 under, while fellow Englishman James Morrison was one shot further back as Garcia became the first Spanish winner of the KLM Open since Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño in 2005.

Rikard Karlberg was one shot further back with fellow Swede Joakim Lagergren, Chilean Hugo Leon and Dutchman Wil Besseling at 11 under. Home favourite and two-time winner Joost Luiten carded a ten under par total in a tie for tenth, alongside Belgian Thomas Pieters, Welshman Bradley Dredge, Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera and England’s Matthew Southgate.

Malaysia’s Gavin Green who is having a good run in the last couple of weeks on tour finished joint 40^th.

Final Scores

270 S Garcia (Esp) 68 67 66 69, 
271 N Højgaard (Den) 67 69 67 68, 
273 M Wallace (Eng) 75 67 63 68, 
274 J Morrison (Eng) 68 67 69 70, 
275 C Shinkwin (Eng) 66 69 66 74, 
276 R Karlberg (Swe) 70 68 70 68, 
277 H Leon (Chi) 70 69 68 70, W Besseling (Ned) 72 66 69 70, J Lagergren (Swe) 71 66 69 71, 
278 M Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 72 69 67 70, B Dredge (Wal) 72 65 72 69, M Southgate (Eng) 67 68 70 73, T Pieters (Bel) 71 66 70 71, J Luiten (Ned) 69 69 70 70, 
279 G Coetzee (RSA) 71 69 67 72, P Reed (USA) 72 69 70 68, P Harrington (Irl) 71 71 68 69, L Johnston (Sco) 70 68 72 69, S Brown (Eng) 69 68 68 74, A Chesters (Eng) 71 68 69 71, 
280 S Jamieson (Sco) 68 65 76 71, A Rozner (Fra) 70 67 71 72, A Romero (Arg) 70 69 70 71, K Kitayama (USA) 69 70 70 71, B Stone (RSA) 70 72 70 68, E Molinari (Ita) 70 71 69 70, 
281 R Langasque (Fra) 68 71 70 72, C Paisley (Eng) 67 73 71 70, H Tanihara (Jpn) 69 71 70 71, R Caron (Ned) 68 69 71 73, J McLeod (Aus) 70 68 73 70, J Wang (Kor) 72 68 70 71, M Kieffer (Ger) 69 68 73 71, P Dunne (Irl) 71 69 73 68, J Donaldson (Wal) 70 70 70 71, 
282 T Detry (Bel) 71 70 70 71, M Orrin (Eng) 68 69 74 71, J Winther (Den) 71 69 67 75, S Crocker (USA) 70 72 66 74, 
283 C Wood (Eng) 72 70 70 71, G Green (Mas) 67 73 72 71, S Sharma (Ind) 70 68 70 75, E Kofstad (Nor) 72 70 67 74, L Slattery (Eng) 74 67 71 71, E De La Riva (Esp) 69 68 70 76, E Walker (Sco) 72 69 69 73, J Veerman (USA) 69 73 72 69, 
284 T Merritt (USA) 73 65 75 71, 
285 D Gavins (Eng) 70 71 72 72, P Figueiredo (Por) 70 70 71 74, S Horsfield (Eng) 67 69 74 75, N Bertasio (Ita) 71 68 77 69, Y Miyazato (Jpn) 74 65 71 75, N McCarthy (Eng) 74 68 72 71, 
286 A Wu (Chn) 69 72 73 72, S Manley (Wal) 73 69 75 69, R Ramsay (Sco) 73 69 72 72, H Porteous (RSA) 68 72 73 73, S Kjeldsen (Den) 70 70 72 74, 
287 T Immelman (RSA) 73 69 73 72, D Law (Sco) 72 70 73 72, G Bhullar (Ind) 72 69 76 70, K Kouwenaar (am) (Ned) 68 70 75 74, 
288 G Moynihan (Irl) 70 71 68 79, 
289 M Warren (Sco) 67 74 70 78, M Korhonen (Fin) 70 69 76 74, 
290 N Lemke (Swe) 73 69 72 76, A Karlsson (Swe) 70 69 78 73, R Saxton (Ned) 69 73 71 77, 
291 S Soderberg (Swe) 75 67 74 75, P Langfors (Swe) 67 73 75 76, 
294 C Blomstrand (Swe) 74 67 74 79, S Maurits (Ned) 71 71 76 76, 
** H Endycott (Aus) 75 67 68 RT,