Story highlights
Branden Grace wins Dunhill Links Championship
Final round 70 at St Andrews give South African two-shot win
Fourth European Tour title of season for Grace
Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark pushes him all the way
Branden Grace duly completed his front running victory at the Dunhill Links Championships Sunday after coming under last round pressure from Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen at St Andrews.
Grace, winning for the fifth time in a superb 2012, four coming on the European Tour, ended two ahead of Olesen after carding a final round 70 for a record 22-under total in the tournament.
“It feels awesome,” the South African told the official European Tour website after a victory that has lifted him to third in the The Race to Dubai.
He has now targeted No.1 Rory McIlroy in the battle for the overall honors in Europe.
“It’s definitely in my sights,” he said.
Grace, who is yet another graduate of the Ernie Els Foundation, led from the first round at Kingsbarns where he shot a stunning 12-under 60.
But when Olesen carded two straight birdies around the turn and Grace three-putted the short 11th for a bogey, they were level.
But Grace pulled away with a stunning hat-trick of birdies only interrupted by a bogey on the Road Hole 17th.
He still had a two-shot lead playing the last which they both birdied.
Alexander Noren of Sweden finished third, four shots back, with Joel Sjoholm of Sweden in fourth.
Scot Stephen Gallacher, a former Dunhill winner, was making superb last day progress until he accidentally played the ball of an amateur partner Steve Halsall on the 16th fairway.
It cost him a two-shot penalty and he ended up running up a quadruple bogey to slip back into a tie for fifth.
European Ryder Cup heroes Martin Kaymer and Peter Hanson finished in a tie for 34th.