Bernd Wiesberger held off the challenge of England’s Matthew Fitzpatrick to claim his third win of the season at the Italian Open.
The Austrian carded a bogey-free 65 in Rome to overturn a three-shot deficit and beat overnight leader Fitzpatrick by one — condemning the 2016 Ryder Cup star to a fifth runners-up finish of the 2019 campaign worldwide.
A final round of level par 71 left Graeme McDowell in a tie for 15th at seven under after a somewhat frustrating weekend which saw him fail to advance after two rounds of level par.
Fitzpatrick had started the day with a one-shot lead but a double-bogey after going out of bounds off the tee on the ninth proved costly.
The Yorkshireman picked up three shots on the back nine to finish but could only par the last after leaving himself 35 feet for a birdie that would have moved him to 15 under and into a play-off.
“It was a bit crap,” he told europeantour.com after carding a closing 69. “To lose by one is obviously very disappointing.
“I think I’ve played well when I’ve been up there on a Sunday, just other people really keep grinding and I keep coming up from behind.
“It is what it is. It’s still a great week, I’m here to win and not here to just make up the numbers.”
Wiesberger made a hat-trick of birdies from the fifth and added another on the ninth to share the lead before Fitzpatrick’s error left him two ahead.
Excellent tee-shots on the 14th and 16th handed the the 34-year-old two more birdies and a 16-under total.
Wiesberger missed the last seven months of the 2018 season with a wrist injury but now sits at the top of the Race to Dubai and has a flying start in his quest to make a Ryder Cup debut in 2020.
“It’s been a great summer for me,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of good golf shown and a lot of progress after coming back from the last year.
“I’ve won three times this year and it’s been the same every time, I’ve just really enjoyed my time and I’m positive to be back out there because I know how tough it was when I had to withdraw from these great events.”
American Kurt Kitayama finished at 12 under, a shot clear of England’s Andrew Johnston, Scot Robert MacIntyre and Austria’s Matthias Schwab.
Collated final round scores & totals in the European Tour Italian Open, Olgaita GC, Rome, Italy (British unless stated, par 71):
268 Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 66 70 67 65
269 Matthew Fitzpatrick 67 65 68 69
272 Kurt Kitayama (USA) 66 70 65 71
273 Andrew Johnston 67 68 70 68, Robert Macintyre 69 69 64 71, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 68 69 70 66
275 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 66 69 72 68, Matt Wallace 69 67 67 72, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 69 70 68 68
276 Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 65 70 75 66, Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 72 69 64 71, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 69 67 70 70, Justin Walters (Rsa) 70 71 70 65, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 68 68 70 70
277 Graeme McDowell (NIrl) 69 66 71 71, Justin Rose 66 69 78 64, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 72 69 68 68
278 Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 72 67 70 69, Julian Suri (USA) 70 69 69 70, Daniel Willett 68 70 69 71, Tyrrell Hatton 68 69 71 70, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 70 71 69 68, Aaron Rai 69 67 69 73
279 Jordan Smith 69 70 72 68
280 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 68 70 66 76, Ross Fisher 68 71 69 72, Joost Luiten (Ned) 66 72 71 71, Paul Waring 70 67 73 70, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 69 67 75 69, Jacques Kruyswijk (Rsa) 70 72 70 68, Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 67 66 74 73, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 74 68 70 68, Stephen Gallacher 70 71 69 70
281 Lucas Herbert (Aus) 74 65 69 73, Alex Noren (Swe) 72 70 70 69, Sam Horsfield 68 71 73 69, David Horsey 69 70 72 70, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 69 70 71 71, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 72 69 72 68
282 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 71 65 73 73, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 70 69 77 66, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 69 67 74 72, Chris Paisley 68 71 71 72, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 70 72 70 70, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 64 72 72 74, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 71 70 68 73, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 70 70 72 70
283 Adri Arnaus (Spa) 70 68 73 72, Guido Migliozzi (Spa) 72 66 75 70, Eddie Pepperell 70 72 71 70, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 72 69 70 72, George Coetzee (Rsa) 69 73 70 71, Alexander Levy (Fra) 69 71 70 73, Renato Paratore (Ita) 71 70 72 70
284 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 71 70 72 71, Oliver Fisher 71 70 72 71
285 Justin Harding (Rsa) 72 69 73 71, S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 74 68 75 68, Victor Perez (Fra) 74 68 72 71
286 Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 71 71 75 69, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 68 70 73 75, James Morrison 72 68 73 73, Lee Westwood 69 72 73 72
287 Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 72 69 70 76, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 72 68 74 73
290 Ashun Wu (Chn) 70 70 76 74, Ashley Chesters 71 71 77 71
292 Thomas Pieters (Bel) 71 71 79 71
294 David Lipsky (USA) 72 70 76 76
