In a closely fought contest, Nicolas Colsaerts squeezed past Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell. “I had to dig deep”, the Belgian told reporters. “But I’m the type of player that can make a lot of birdies,” he said. The win earned him 700,000 euros.
It was a tense, tightly contested match on the Finca Cortesin. In difficult windy conditions, the two players battled it out for victory. And the 29-year-old Belgian rookie, a rising star in the world of golf, overcame the 2010 US Open Champion, Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell.
Colsaerts never trailed thoughout the match, but made life hard for himself when he was two up with only two holes to play. McDowell was in fact ready to shake hands with the Belgian on the par-three 17th hole, but Colsaerts missed an easy four-foot putt to extend the contest to the final hole.
Colsaerts kept his cool though in the par-five 18th hole and did not give McDowell a final chance to get back in the match.
This was Colsaert’s second European Tour win, after last year’s China Open. The win in Casares gave him the biggest payday of his career with 700,000 euros.
“I had to dig deep all day”, Colsaerts told Reuters after the match. “The conditions this afternoon were brutal and we had to fight and grind all the way. (…) When you play Graeme in these conditions you know it’s going to be tough because he’s (Northern) Irish and plays lots of links golf.”
The win allowed Colsaerts to make his way further up the golf world rankings, to 32nd place (from 51st). Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland retains first place.
