Tom McKibbin qualifies for The Open Championship after losing out to Marcel Siem in a play-off at Italian Open
Tom McKibbin -4 trailed 54 hole -10 joint leaders Marcel Siem & Antoine Rozner by six shots and started the fourth round 2 hours & 50 minutes before Sunday’s final group. The Northern Irishman took advantage of early calm conditions at Adriatic Golf Club with a front nine of -2. McKibbin’s back nine included three birdies and achieved an up & down at 18 to shoot a -6 bogey free round of 65. McKibbin posted -10 thought his week was over as his dad put his golf clubs away and caddie Dave McNeilly headed to the train station.
Siem -13 had problems getting out of greenside bunkers and was unsuccessful with par efforts at both the 14th & 15th hole. Rozner’s challenge of winning came to an end especially with playing holes 14 to 17 in +4. Siem dropped back to -9 with a bogey at the extremely difficult 209 yard par three 17th hole and remarkably McKibbin -10 was leading Italian Open. The German finished with an extraordinary birdie at 387 yard par four 18th hole to tie McKibbin on -10.
McKibbin headed to the Driving Range and his caddie McNeilly returned for play-off. The play-off between McKibbin & Siem took place at 18 and it came down to a putting competition between duo. McKibbin unfortunately missed his birdie effort whereas Siem was successful and confirmed as winner of Italian Open. The Northern Irishman settled for a runner-up finish, earned $334,400 and up to 97th on World Golf Rankings.
The DP World Tour wasn’t the only dramatic finish on Sunday 30th of June as Lauren Walsh set a club house target of -10 at Swiss Ladies Open. Alice Hewson pipped Walsh due to playing 17 and 18 in -3 to finish -11. Tvesa Malik finished superbly especially with holing her third shot for eagle on 17 and tied Hewson on -11. The play-off took place at 18 and an excellent birdie confirmed Hewson as Swiss Ladies Open champion. A remarkable round of 64 by Walsh as Ladies European Tour rookie finished third.
Newport Country Club hosted US Senior’s Open and the field included LIV Golf member Lee Westwood. Padraig Harrington came into this major off a win at Dick’s Sporting Goods Open and opened up with an extraordinary -4 round of 66. Harrington struggled to make his presence known on the leaderboard but managed to finish tied 16th on -3. The tournament was won by LIV Golf member Richard Bland.
Akshay Bhatia -17 was tied for the lead with Aaron Rai after 54 holes of Rocket Mortgage Classic. Scoring was extremely difficult on Sunday and a round of 70 was good enough for Cameron Davis to win his second PGA Tour title. A great day for Australia with Davis winning and a joint second finish for Min Woo Lee.