An emotional Simon Thornton dedicated his maiden European Tour victory to his late father after the Irishman showed nerves of steel to beat Tjaart Van der Walt of South Africa in a play-off and claim the Najeti Hotels et Golfs Open presented by Neuflize OBC title on Father\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
The Irishman holed several tricky putts on the back nine in an enthralling battle of wits with his South African playing partner in the final group at Aa Saint Omer Golf Club.<\/p>\n
The most important putt of all, however, came at the 18th during regular play when, after Van der Walt sealed a par, Thornton was left with a ten-foot putt to take it to extra holes.<\/p>\n
Under the most intense of pressure, the 36 year old rolled it into the cup and clenched his fist in celebration as he signed for a one under par 70 to finish alongside Van der Walt on four under.<\/p>\n
He kept his cool once again in the play-off, finding the fringe of the green while Van der Walt\u2019s approach landed in a greenside bunker and after the South African\u2019s sand shot fell 12 feet short, Thornton rolled a perfectly-weighted putt from 30 feet which slid just left of the hole but ensured a par.<\/p>\n
When Van der Walt\u2019s par putt came up short, Thornton tapped in to the rapturous applause of the watching crowds, before dedicating the victory to his father, who passed away three years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so big for me,\u201d said a tearful Thornton. \u201cOn father\u2019s day too, he passed away three years ago and it still hurts, but they are happy tears today. This is dedicated to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t play particularly well today in perfect conditions but I got up and down when I had to and holed good putts.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the last putt \u2013 I had been saying to myself all day, if I’m going to make it easy for myself I need to try on every putt and make sure it goes where you want to hit it \u2013 so I just picked a line and willed it in and it dropped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thornton\u2019s rise is an incredible story of progression to the top of European golf against all odds, as he was a seven handicap golfer just over a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Born in Bradford, England, he moved to Ireland to become an Assistant Professional at Royal County Down Golf Club before rising from the Irish professional ranks to the Challenge Tour and then to The European Tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully this is a stepping stone for me,\u201d said Thornton, who carded the first hole in one of his professional career on the third day in France. \u201cI\u2019ll go home this week now and celebrate, take a week off, and then play in the Irish Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo come here and play like I did is incredible. What happens now with this category is fantastic, it\u2019s mad how things have changed. It\u2019s surreal.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Van der Walt, who also carded a one under par final round 70, it was a second runner-up finish on The European Tour after finishing second in the Africa Open last year.<\/p>\n
Englishman Seve Benson sealed the highest finish of his European Tour career as a one under par 70 left him in outright third place, two shots ahead of his compatriot Robert Dinwiddie whose final round of 70 earned him a fourth-placed finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An emotional Simon Thornton dedicated his maiden European Tour victory to his late father after the Irishman showed nerves of steel to beat Tjaart Van der Walt of South Africa in a play-off and claim the Najeti Hotels et Golfs Open presented by Neuflize OBC title on Father\u2019s Day. The Irishman holed several tricky putts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-showcase"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t