An emotional Marcus Armitage produced a stunning final round to claim his first European Tour title in the Porsche European Open.
Starting the day four shots off the lead, Armitage stormed through the field with a closing 65 to finish on eight under par, two ahead of Matthew Southgate, Darius Van Driel, Edoardo Molinari and Thomas Detry.
Defending champion Paul Casey finished two strokes further back following a final round of 68 in an event reduced to 54 holes due to quarantine issues for players, caddies and staff from the UK.
Armitage, who left school at the age of 13 following the death of his mother, Jean, from cancer, told Sky Sports: “Twenty years ago I lost my mum and I’ve dreamt about this since that day, being a winner.
“You have times when you think this might not happen but I just stuck at it and today’s a great day and I’m sure she’d be proud.
“I have everybody in my team that has helped me – this one’s for me. Deep down it’s for me, all them lonely days on my own dealing with life, working at my dream and I think I have to take a lot of credit for it myself.”
Speaking in his post-event press conference, Armitage added: “I do this game for me and I have done for a long time, but the effect it has on the people around me is massive.
“My fiancee Lucy has been saying for years I just want you to do good so you can choose where you play and we can schedule a year and I can have proper time off instead of always fighting to get my card and have some status.
“That’s one of the top benefits from winning and on top of that I’ve been having a rough time with my dad lately, we haven’t been seeing eye to eye, but this means a lot to him, all the years he’s stood by me and supported me.”
Armitage, who recently set a Guinness World Record for the longest shot (303 yards) caught in a moving car, birdied the first and third at Green Eagle Golf Course before holing out from 80 yards for an eagle on the par-four seventh.
The 33-year-old almost repeated the feat on the ninth to set up a tap-in birdie and complete the front nine in just 29, before birdies on the 11th, 12th and 14th took him four shots clear.
Southgate responded to dropping a shot on the 11th with a tap-in birdie on the next and after Armitage gave the chasing pack further hope with a bogey on the 16th, Southgate closed to within one with a birdie on the 15th.
However, Southgate’s hopes were effectively dashed when he found water off the tee on the 18th, which left Van Driel needing to eagle the same hole to force a play-off.
A superb drive left Van Driel just 226 yards to the green, but he bafflingly opted to lay up and when he unsurprisingly failed to hole his approach from 92 yards, Armitage could celebrate victory and a place in next week’s US Open.
“To be going to Torrey Pines, where I watched it when Tiger [Woods] won there back in ’08 it’s going to be a special, special trip and I can’t wait,” Armitage added.
“It’s another stepping stone to world level where I want to be. I just hope I pass all the Covid tests.”
Ten places in the US Open were available via a mini-order of Merit from the last three European Tour events, with British Masters winner Richard Bland joining Armitage, Southgate, Molinari, Detry, Guido Migliozzi, Mikko Korhonen, Jordan Smith, Adrian Meronk and Dave Coupland in the field at Torrey Pines.
Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger would also have qualified but secured his place via his world ranking following his victory in Denmark.
Northern Ireland's Cormac Sharvin slipped down towards the end of the field after closing with a six-over 78 that saw him finish the tournament on eight over.
With three double-bogeys and three bogeys in his round, Sharvin did enjoy the seventh hole, where he carded an eagle two on the 372-yard par four.
Final scores
(British and Irish unless stated, Par 72):
208 Marcus Armitage 72 71 65
210 Thomas Detry (Bel) 68 73 69, Matthew Southgate 70 69 71, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 75 65 70, Darius van Driel (Ned) 71 69 70
212 Paul Casey 75 69 68
213 Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 74 67 72, David Law 69 71 73, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 70 74 69, Marcel Schneider (Ger) 70 73 70
214 Joost Luiten (Ned) 76 68 70, Renato Paratore (Ita) 74 69 71, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 71 74 69, Jordan Smith 73 72 69, Sean Crocker (USA) 72 71 71, Maverick Antcliff (Aus) 71 68 75, Dale Whitnell 71 74 69
215 Kalle Samooja (Fin) 74 70 71, Scott Jamieson 70 70 75, Ashley Chesters 69 75 71, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 72 71 72, Jack Senior 73 72 70, Connor Syme 75 69 71, Wil Besseling (Ned) 73 72 70
216 Jorge Campillo (Esp) 78 67 71, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 72 73 71, Richie Ramsay 77 69 70, David Horsey 76 68 72
217 Alexander Bjork (Swe) 69 74 74, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 76 70 71, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 76 70 71, Calum Hill 76 68 73, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 75 70 72, Benjamin Poke (Den) 70 72 75, Laurie Canter 76 67 74, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 70 74 73, Rhys Enoch 72 73 72, Dimitrios Papadatos (Aus) 72 75 70, Ajeetesh Sandhu (Ind) 72 70 75
218 Thorbjoern Olesen (Den) 74 72 72, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 73 73 72, Justin Walters (Rsa) 75 72 71, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den) 76 68 74, Clement Sordet (Fra) 71 73 74
219 Justin Harding (Rsa) 77 69 73, Ashun Wu (Chn) 69 76 74, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 71 72 76, David Drysdale 72 72 75, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 74 73 72, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 75 72 72, Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den) 74 73 72
220 Yikeun Chang (Kor) 72 75 73, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp) 75 71 74, Paul Peterson (USA) 72 75 73
221 Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 76 71 74, Rasmus Hojgaard (Den) 75 70 76, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 74 70 77
222 Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 72 73 77, Johannes Veerman (USA) 81 66 75
223 Stephen Gallacher 74 73 76, Bernd Ritthammer (Ger) 71 76 76, Josh Geary (Nzl) 72 73 78
224 Cormac Sharvin 71 75 78
225 Toby Tree 74 71 80
226 Pedro Oriol (Esp) 73 74 79
228 Emilio Cuartero (Esp) 71 75 82
