Home hero Rafa Cabrera Bello set his sights on once again challenging for golf’s biggest titles after claiming his first win in four years at the Acciona Open de Espana.
The Spaniard defeated countryman Adri Arnaus on the first playoff hole in Madrid to lift the trophy and complete a remarkable return to form after claiming just one worldwide top 10 in 2021.
The 37-year-old was undefeated in three matches as a member of Europe’s defeated Ryder Cup team in 2016 and a year later won one of the European Tour’s elite Rolex Series events at the Scottish Open.
He also finished in the top five at the British Open in 2017 and claimed a top 10 at the US PGA Championship in 2018 but arrived in the Spanish capital ranked 231st in the world.
He entered the final round with a two-shot lead and despite seeing that disappear with a double-bogey on the first, he birdied the fourth and then added a hat-trick of gains from the 13th.
He produced a brilliant sand save for par on the last to sign for a 69 and take the contest to extra holes at 19 under.
His tee shot on the second trip up the 18th was not his best, but neither was Arnaus’s effort, and Cabrera Bello put an approach to 11 feet and rolled home his birdie putt to take the title.
“I came here in a pretty bad place with scores being not what I expect them to be and to be able to get momentum and turn it around and to walk out of here with a win means a lot to me,” he said.
“Hopefully I can keep going and get back to the player I know I can be.
“I’m very, very happy. I knew it was going to be a really hard battle today and I don’t think I need to say that I didn’t get off to the ideal start.
“I’ve been believing in myself, I’ve had amazing support all this week rooting for me ever since the first minute and I was just hanging in there, I knew I’d have an opportunity and I’m glad that luck swung my way.”
Arnaus made spectacular eagles on the seventh and 14th in a 67 that left him two shots ahead of Scotland's Grant Forrest, who picked up seven shots in his last seven holes as he came home in 28 for a closing 65.
England's Jack Senior finished at 16 under, a shot clear of countryman Richard Bland and Scotland's Marc Warren.
World number one Jon Rahm carded a closing 69 to finish six shots out of the playoff as his bid for a third consecutive win at this event fell short.
Kinsale golfer John Murphy completed a fine week in the Spanish capital by carding a fourth round in the 60s, a closing three-under 68 that including two eagles seeing him finish in a share of 24th position on 11 under.
Final leaderboard
British and Irish unless stated, par 71
265 Rafael Cabrera Bello (Esp) 67 65 64 69, Adria Arnaus (Esp) 67 64 67 67 – Cabrera Bello won playoff at first extra hole)
267 Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 67 64 70 66, Grant Forrest 65 67 70 65, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 66 66 66 69
268 Wilco Nienaber (Rsa) 71 65 68 64, Wil Besseling (Ned) 64 65 72 67, Jack Senior 67 67 65 69
269 Richard Bland 69 68 64 68, Renato Paratore (Ita) 67 70 67 65, Marc Warren 66 67 69 67
270 Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 70 67 67 66, Lucas Bjerregaard (Den) 66 68 68 68, Alexander Levy (Fra) 72 64 65 69, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 69 66 70 65, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 67 68 69 66
271 Jon Rahm (Esp) 63 67 72 69, Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 68 70 65 68, Michael Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 67 69 68 67
272 Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 67 66 70 69, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 69 66 69 68, Jordan Smith 66 71 68 67, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 69 68 67 68
273 Joachim B Hansen (Den) 68 66 70 69, Ross McGowan 61 70 71 71, George Coetzee (Rsa) 69 69 66 69, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 65 71 67 70, Santiago Tarrio (Esp) 66 68 69 70, John Murphy 68 68 69 68, Andrew Johnston 70 68 67 68, Jazz Janewattananond (Tha) 67 67 70 69, Jamie Donaldson 64 70 69 70, Matthew Jordan 68 65 69 71
274 Jacobo Pastor (Esp) 71 66 70 67, David Puig (Esp) 68 67 69 70, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 67 72 68 67, David Drysdale 64 70 68 72, Connor Syme 67 69 73 65
275 Min-Woo Lee (Aus) 67 69 70 69, Alvaro Quiros (Esp) 71 67 66 71, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 65 69 71 70, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 67 70 67 71, Francesco Laporta (Ita) 67 71 70 67, Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 68 68 68 71
276 Jorge Campillo (Esp) 67 70 68 71, Calum Hill 70 68 69 69, Marcus Armitage 69 68 71 68, David Law 70 69 71 66, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Esp) 68 68 71 69, Richie Ramsay 69 69 72 66, Scott Jamieson 66 68 70 72, David Coupland 68 69 71 68
277 Andy Sullivan 67 70 72 68, Soeren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 69 71 68, Luke Donald 69 70 69 69
278 Steven Brown 68 68 72 70, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 67 72 71 68, Graeme Storm 71 67 69 71,Jason Scrivener (Aus) 71 68 70 69, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 72 67 70 69, Justin Walters (Rsa) 71 68 71 68, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 70 69 69 70, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 69 68 71 70, Niklas Lemke (Swe) 68 69 72 69
279 Ashley Chesters 71 66 72 70, Aaron Cockerill (Can) 66 69 73 71, Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 65 73 72 69
281 Haotong Li (Chn) 68 71 72 70, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 67 71 70 73, Darius van Driel (Ned) 67 71 71 72
282 Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 71 68 72 71
282 David Horsey 66 70 75 71
282 Sebastian Garcia (Esp) 62 73 76 71
282 Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 70 66 75 71
