Scott Strange shrugged off illness and difficult personal circumstances back home in Australia to produce a truly sensational display to cruise to victory in The Celtic Manor Wales Open.
The 31 year old from Perth, who suffered worrying dizzy spells on the course on Saturday and who, although refusing to go into details admitted his maiden European Tour success would “put a smile on a very special person's face back home,” produced sublime golf which made light of both those facts.
Having started the day with a three shot advantage, birdies at four of the first six holes put him on easy street and he did not drop a shot all day, eventually carding a final round 64 – not as good as his course record opening 63 – but nevertheless good enough for a 22 under par total of 262 and a four shot victory over Robert Karlsson who produced an equally fine final round 64 but was still a distant second.
Strange’s stranglehold on the tournament was emphasised by the fact that, without Karlsson in the tournament, the Australian’s nearest challenger was Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin who finished third, eight shots adrift and five players who shared fourth an incredible nine shots behind.
The winner’s cheque for €376,671 (£300,000) moved Strange to ninth on The European Tour Order of Merit and, perhaps more importantly for the Tour rookie, gave him a priceless exemption until the end of the 2010 season.
Strange admitted he still intends to play in this week’s European Tour event in Austria but made the decision to withdraw from Monday’s US Open Qualifying at Walton Heath to allow him to savour his victory for a little longer.
"I'm going to stay the night and have a couple of drinks," said Strange, who led from start to finish to become the fifth wire to wire winner of the 2008 European Tour season and the third player – following Steen Tinning in 2000 and Simon Khan in 2004 to make The Celtic Manor Wales Open their maiden European Tour title.
After suffering a dizzy spell on the course in his third round, Strange said he was still not 100 per cent when he woke up. "As the day progressed, though, I got better and better.
“But I played great out there and I am delighted to have won. I knew a few guys would come after me but I could only control what I was doing and I knew that if I shot a half decent score they would have to shoot something like ten under to beat me – which is exactly what I did.”
“I had a bit of a poor tee shot on the last but it was a bit of a vacant brain moment, there was nothing in there after all that has gone on. But I got the ball away and found it in the rough thankfully and was able to make par – which was a good way to finish.”
Runner-up Karlsson, who had six successive birdies around the turn to be only two behind at that stage, commented: "I played really, really well.I saw a leaderboard out of the corner of my eye on hole eight. I thought I was off to a good start and I was five behind - I was like 'what's happening here?'
"I thought maybe I'll sneak up on him, but it happens sometimes. With (Steve) Webster in Portugal it felt like I won the tournament, but there was someone else playing a different tournament."
