Sam Horsfield hit a career shot with his favourite club and held his nerve on the final green to close out his maiden European Tour victory while Thomas Detry’s missed putt on 18 meant the Belgian’s late charge came up just short at the Hero Open.
Horsfield, the Orlando-based Englishman, seemed to have been overwhelmed by Detry down the stretch as the 27-year-old had four birdies in six holes from the 12th at the Forest of Arden. When Horsfield bogeyed the 15th to fall out of the lead for the first time since Friday morning, the momentum seemed inevitable.
However there was to be another little twist in the tale. Detry missed a routine three-foot part putt on the par three final hole, and almost immediately Horsfield hit a career shot to snatch back the lead with a birdie at the 17th, closing out nervelessly with a tricky two-putt par at the last to clinch the title.
Horsfield, originally from Manchester, won with a final round four-under 68 for an 18-under aggregate of 270, just a stroke ahead of Detry.
“I saw I was one back when I looked at the leaderboard on 16, hit the one of the best five woods in my life to make sure of the birdie on 17,” said Horsfield. “We wanted to leave a good five wood into the green there because it’s my favourite club in the bag.
“I had 233 into the wind and out of the left, probably playing 245-250ish. It was a perfect, hold-up, cut five wood; that’s my favourite shot and I executed it perfectly.”
By the time he’d holed out for his four on 17 he knew he had the lead again, and was able to make his par at the last to clinch victory, holing out from the same range Detry had missed just a few minutes earlier.
Horsfield has based himself in the US since his college days and has the twang to go with it, but he’s come back home to get his start in pro golf and this his vindication.
“It’s special,” he said. “With everything that’s going on in the world right now, I’m thankful that the European Tour has been able to put on tournaments for us to play.
“I’ve been in Orlando for the last three months and felt like my game was right there, I played decently last week, had a bad finish but kept the positives from that. I played solid all week and gave myself a lot of opportunities and made one enough.”
Horsfield is good friends with Ian Poulter’s long-time caddie Terry Mundy, and got some good advice from the veteran bagman before striking out on the final round.
“We talked about him and Poulter being in leading situations in tournaments and he said the attitude to have was to go out there and play good golf, if you get beat, you get beat.
“I had that mindset today. I thought I’m going to do my own thing, play good golf and if someone wants to catch me, then good for them.”
Detry did catch him, but couldn’t sustain it for the final hole, his final round 66 ending up a shot short.
“I have nothing to be disappointed about right now,” he insisted. “I played some really good golf today, the greens are getting trickier down the stretch and I over-read that putt on 18.
“But I’m very pleased with the way I finished on those last few holes. I hit some very good shots out there, we’ll move on and forget about it and just try to win next week.”
Scott Jamieson shot the equal bets round of the day in the tricky and windy conditions at Forest of Arden, a round of 65 with a back nine of four-under 32 sending the Scot up the leaderboard to finish inside the top ten.
Richie Ramsay had a four-under 68 to finish on nine-under, while Grant Forrest’s two par round of 72 on the weekend left him sharing 34th place.
