Hertfordshire’s Todd Clements carded a final round 63 to claim his maiden DP World Tour title at the D+D REAL Czech Masters on Sunday.
The 27-year-old player from Brocket Hall, who is currently in his first season on the DP World Tour after graduating from the Challenge Tour last year, started the final day three shots off the lead, but immediately cut the deficit with consecutive birdies on his opening three holes. Another hat-trick of birdies followed from the sixth as he made the turn six under par, taking the outright lead for the first time after the eighth.
He then made a third run of three birdies from the 11th and parred his remaining five holes to sign for a 22 under par total, facing an agonising wait as countryman Matt Wallace still had four holes to play.
Wallace moved to within one stroke after his fifth birdie of the day on the 14th, but was unable to draw level as his birdie attempt from nine feet at the 18th slid agonisingly past the hole, leaving the Londoner to sign for a 67 and handing Clements his first victory on his 30th start on Europe’s top tier tour.
Nicolai Højgaard took third on 18 under, making a late push for consideration for Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team, while Bob MacIntyre, who still occupies the third and final automatic spot on the European points list with one qualifying event left to play, finished fourth alongside five other players.
Clements, whose victory took him up to 51st in the DP World Tour ranking, and whose previous best finish was 21st in the KLM Open, said: “I’ve dreamt of this for a long time. It’s the reason I play golf. To win out here takes some people a few years, but I had my luck today and managed to take it. I’m over the moon.
He added: “I took inspiration from seeing my friend Dan Brown winning in Ireland last week. We grew up playing amateur golf together and I was delighted for him. That gave me the belief that I could do it as well. I know my game’s there and I know I can compete at this level.”
“Today, I had a hot start and holed a few good putts. I feel like I did my job on every shot. I wasn’t really paying too much attention to the leaderboards, but I knew it was a birdie fest out there, and I was five or six groups ahead of the final pair, so I knew I had to put my foot to the pedal and I managed to do that.”
