Thomas Levet emerged from a nailbiting four-man play off at Woburn Golf and Country Club to win the Victor Chandler British Masters and become the first Frenchman to win a tournament on British soil since Arnaud Massy won the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in 1907.
The 32 year old Parisien, whose only previous victory on The European Tour was in the 1998 Cannes Open, carded a final round 69 on The Marquess Course for a 14 under par total of 274 to tie with Swedes Mathias Grönberg and Robert Karlsson and England’s David Howell.
The biggest play-off on The European Tour since the 1993 Honda Open in Hamburg saw both Howell and Karlsson drop out at the first hole, the 459 yard 18th, after taking bogey five, leaving Levet and Grönberg to battle on.
The Frenchman, in fact, had a putt of four feet to win at the first time of asking but pulled his effort left of the hole. He made up for his error the next time round on the same green when he holed from five feet to stay alive before taking glory on the third play-off hole, the 176 yard 17th.
Ten feet behind the pin after an exquisite six iron tee shot, the Frenchman saw Grönberg leave his birdie attempt from 12 feet short before gently rolling his birdie effort downhill into the cup to spark an amazing celebration as he ran the entire circumference of the green high-fiving with the cheering gallery.
“Yes, magnifique is the word,” said a delighted Levet. “It is unbelievable to win in such a big tournament. I’ve won many times in France but every time outside France I seem to finish second or whatever, so this is unbelievable.
“After I won on the 17th green I ran around and had fun with the crowd to calm down a little bit. I was so nervous but it was not easy that putt. When I saw it going in I couldn’t believe it – it’s unreal.”
The win gave the Frenchman the top prize of 345,079 euro (£208,330) and moved him from 63rd on the Volvo Order of Merit at the start of the week to eighth. It also saw him rise to 13th on the Ryder Cup points list.
He paid tribute to the sponsor, Victor Chandler, by saying: "We are very fortunate to have someone like Victor Chandler. It is rare in France for anyone to sponsor a tournament also eight, nine, maybe ten players on the Tour and the Challenge Tour as well."
For Grönberg, who had played well at Wentworth Club last week to finish tied for fourth place, there was perhaps the most disappointment considering his final round 68 was the best of the four players who enacted the final drama.
The Swede started the day in dramatic fashion, birdieing five of the first seven holes to rocket up the leaderboard but he could not maintain the momentum over the tough closing holes, finding sand at both the 15th and 17th to deny him an outright victory in regulation play.
“It is nice to do well, of course, and I did play well all week but it is a pity to come up just one short, especially after the way I finished in normal play,” said Grönberg. “I made some good shots and put myself in the position to win, but that’s the way it is sometimes.”
At the start of play, most money in the sponsor’s state-of-the-art betting unit to the right of the 18th fairway had gone on Howell and Karlsson who had dominated the leaderboard for the majority of the week and who started the final round at 15 and 14 under par respectively.
But whereas the course had been at the pair’s mercy earlier in the week, with both shooting three respective rounds in the 60s, the final afternoon saw The Marquess Course take its revenge.
Howell got the impression it might not be his day when he missed his par effort from three feet at the first hole to make bogey five and when he endured a misadventure in the trees at the long 11th on his way to a double bogey seven, his chances looked slim.
But to his credit, the winner of the 1999 Dubai Desert Classic battled back with birdies at the 13th and 14th before holing a brave putt on the 72nd green for a 73 to book his place in the play-off. But he bunkered his approach to the first play-off hole on his way to a bogey five and his day was over.
“Obviously I’m gutted, it just all went wrong,” he said. “After three days of everything going right, today wasn’t quite the same but it just came down to the fact that I putted terribly – that made things very difficult for me.
“You have to try and be positive I suppose, it’s the first play-off I played in so hopefully I can learn from the experience. It was a great week but disappointing when you are leading and don’t end up winning.”
Karlsson, whose excellent season to date on The European Tour has included three top ten finishes and victory in the Via Digital Open de España in April, looked favourite when he birdied the second and fourth holes.
But dropped shots at the 14th and 16th saw him have to settle for a final round 72, after holing a testing ten footer on the final green, but his play-off aspirations came to an end on the opening hole when he hooked a four-iron left of the 18th green and failed to get up and down.
“I’m not too unhappy to be honest,” he said philisophically. “I came into the week not playing well and I just haven’t putted well enough. I knocked in a couple of good ones on the first day but I didn’t make enough birdies to win.
“It was a very good achievement to get into the play-off, holing that putt the way I did on the last, but that’s life I suppose. I will now have three weeks off before the Murphy’s Irish Open.”
A final round 69 gave his namesake Olle Karlsson fifth place on his own with a ten under par total of 278 while Ricardo Gonzalez and Niclas Fasth shared sixth place on 279 after respective closing rounds of 69 and 70.
Reigning European Number One Lee Westwood failed to ignite his challenge on a final day where he started only five shots off the lead, the 28 year old from Worksop finishing with a double bogey six at the last for a 74 and a share of eighth place with Anthony Wall.
