Dylan Fritelli won his maiden European Tour Title after producing a final-round 67 at the Lyoness Open. He won by a single shot from England’s David Horsey, fellow country man Jbe Kruger, and Finland’s Mikko Korhonen.
The 27- year- old began the day on seven under, two shots behind Felipe Aguilar – latter led after each of the opening three rounds – but made gains in the first and third to grab a share of the lead. He tapped in his close-range birdie putt at the fourth to take the outright lead before safely parring the next four holes.
Frittelli dropped his first shot of the day at the short 14th making way for his countryman Kruger to join him at the top of the pile and even knock him off the leaderboard after gaining at the 15th and 16th.
Frittelli, however, bounced back and fired his sixth birdie of the day at the 16th to get back to 12 under before saving par from eight feet at the next. Kruger dropped a shot at the last, making Frittelli stand at the 18th tee with a one-shot lead. He made no mistake and knocked in his close-range par putt to secure the trophy.
He was elated at securing his first European Tour crown saying, [perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”I’m really happy with the way the week went – super stoked to get my first win on the European Tour – I think it’s been a long time coming and I am glad to be inside the winner’s circle.[/perfectpullquote]
“I was just trying to get it on the green, make a par and avoid a play-off. My zero and two record in play-offs is not very good so I didn’t want to have extra guys in the play-off trying to beat them on the 18th.
“Hopefully I get into The Open with this performance and it should move me up the Race to Dubai and open up some more doors down the road.”
The win has moved the South African up the Rankings to 76th with his fellow countrymen, Charl Schwartzel climbing to 16th, Louis Oosthuizen to 21st, Branden Grace to 29th, and Brandon Stone 91st.
Featured Photo: Getty Images
