One by one, the sling-shots were thrown in his direction. Time and time again, Victor Dubuisson fended off his pursuers and, in the end, the 23-year-old Frenchman demonstrated fortitude and character to fashion a breakthrough win on tour by claiming the Turkish Airlines Open here on the Montgomerie Maxx Royal course.
With a number of subplots in a dramatic final day's play, Dubuisson – a former world number one ranked amateur – kept his nerve to fulfil that rich potential. He fired a closing round 69 for 264, 24-under-par, to win by two strokes from former Irish Open champion Jamie Donaldson, who had some added consolation for a final round 63 by also receiving one million air miles from the sponsor for a hole-in-one on the 16th.
Dubuisson had carried a five stroke lead into the final round, only to be pursued with vigour with Donaldson and US Open champion Justin Rose his main protagonists. To his credit, Dubuisson held firm and birdied three of his finishing four holes, including back-to-back on the 17th and 18th, to earn the now traditional champagne shower from his fellow French players on the home green.
Competitive season
For Pádraig Harrington, though, it marked the end of his competitive season. Requiring a top-10 finish to get into next week's field for the DP World championship in Dubai, Harrington only mustered a closing 71 for tied-50th and he won't reappear on tour until next January's Volvo Champions in South Africa.
“I’m looking forward to the break,” confessed Harrington. “Obviously, you’d like to continue playing competitive golf to test where your game is at. I will miss that side of it. But a break won’t do me any harm, that’s for sure. It’s about getting your mind sharp.”
Harrington’s disappointing season will have consequences in planning next year’s itinerary as he doesn’t currently qualify for the opening two WGCs of 2014 – the Accenture Matchplay and the Cadillac championship – and is also set to miss out on the US Masters at Augusta.
“I’m really badly struggling with numbers next year to try and find 13 events in Europe, that’s tough for me. I don’t know what I am going to do yet,” said Harrington, who is considering starting his PGA season a week earlier than planned by taking in the Phoenix Open ahead of the AT&T.
“The less I play the less chance I have of getting into the Masters. I’ll only play six or seven events before (Augusta),” he added, aware he needs to win one of those to claim a ticket to the season’s first Major.
An eagle
In contrast, Shane Lowry – who closed with a 67 for 279 – left Turkey on the charter flight to Dubai last night with the momentum of a good weekend's work having shot a 65 on Saturday. The highlight of yesterday's round was an eagle on the Par 5 fourth, his 13th, where he hit a drive of over 300 yards and then hit a five-iron approach to eight feet.
“My main goal (for the weekend) was to get myself comfortable going into Dubai. I’ve just hit the ball beautifully the last two days and putted nicely. It has given me confidence. I feel also I showed a bit of character after what transpired on Thursday (when he damaged his putter). All I wanted was a bit of confidence and I’ve attained that,” said Lowry.
With his self-confessed "golfing hero" Tiger Woods playing in the group ahead of him, Dubuisson – who has struggled in the past with stress when getting into contention – stayed cool and calm. Having started out with a five-stroke lead, Dubuisson walked onto the 15th green and looked at the leaderboard positioned there to see that both Donaldson and Rose had joined him in a three-way tie on 21-under-par.
Impressively, Dubuisson’s response was to chip and putt for birdie there on the 15th, holed a 30-foot left-to-right breaking putt for birdie on the 17th - “one you only hole in your dreams,” he joked – and, then, finished in style on the 18th to claim his maiden tour title.
The win moved Dubuisson to ninth in the Race to Dubai standings and into the world’s top-40 which will earn him a first invite to the Masters.
“This is a dream come true for me and if I played the Masters next year, it would be so great. I didn’t know I could make such a big step (in the world rankings) in one tournament.”
Dubuisson said he was helped by having another Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin in his group, which also included Ian Poulter. "He did speak to me on the last three holes and it did help me a lot because sometimes I would go on my inside, you know, when I feel stress and have some pressure on me. I just close (in) on myself. The fact Raphael spoke to me a few times did help me."
In the Race to Dubai, Henrik Stenson retained his place on top of the rankings.
However, Rose’s tied-third finish moved him above the absent Graeme McDowell into second place and cut Stenson’s lead at the top.
