Sergio Garcia claimed his 11th European Tour title in dramatic fashion after a nail-biting play-off with Mikko Ilonen at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.<\/p>\n
In fast fading light at Doha Golf Club, Garcia eventually saw off the Finn with a birdie at the third extra hole to collect the \u20ac305,232 winner\u2019s cheque and move to second place in The Race to Dubai.<\/p>\n
After both men had finished on 16 under par \u2013 Garcia courtesy of a superb round of 65 and Ilonen with a 66 \u2013 the duo halved the first two play-off holes with birdie fours.<\/p>\n
Third time around, Ilonen\u2019s tee shot found the right rough and his approach ended up in the bunker, giving Garcia \u2013 who had located the heart of the green with his second shot \u2013 the chance to win it with an eagle three, only for his putt to roll agonisingly past the cup.<\/p>\n
Faced with a 20 foot putt to take the play-off into a fourth hole, Ilonen\u2019s effort drifted wide to hand Garcia his first European Tour victory since the 2011 Andaluc\u00eda Masters.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard said: \u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a wait for my 11th win, I came close a few times last season, including here in Qatar, but didn\u2019t quite manage to get the job done. So it\u2019s nice to get the win, and great to get more Ryder Cup points on the board.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like my game\u2019s coming together really nicely \u2013 although I wouldn\u2019t have said that after the first round, when I played terribly but shot one of the best rounds of 71 in my career. So to recover from that and grind out a win does an awful lot for my confidence, and the rest of the season excites me.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite tasting defeat in the first play-off of his career, Ilonen was still pleased with his week\u2019s work.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI played good golf this week, so I can\u2019t be too disappointed. I gave it my best shot, but Sergio was a bit better this time. There\u2019s no shame in losing to a great player like him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Garcia\u2019s compatriot Rafa Cabrera-Bello finished in a tie for third place on 15 under par alongside Thorbj\u00f8rn Olesen after the pair carded respective rounds of 69 and 68.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sergio Garcia claimed his 11th European Tour title in dramatic fashion after a nail-biting play-off with Mikko Ilonen at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. In fast fading light at Doha Golf Club, Garcia eventually saw off the Finn with a birdie at the third extra hole to collect the \u20ac305,232 winner\u2019s cheque and move to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"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\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t