Richard Sterne put an end to a run of personal near misses but, agonisingly for the patriotic Welsh galleries, added another one to the list of their home favourite Bradley Dredge, when he triumphed in The 2007 Celtic Manor Wales Open.
The diminutive South African stood tall when all around him shrunk back from the challenge to pick up the €368,812 (£250,000) first prize to move to fourth on The European Tour Order of Merit and also gain automatic entry into next month’s Open Championship at Carnoustie through the Official World Golf Ranking.
Sterne carded a final round 65 for a 13 under par total of 263 to relegate a quartet of players, including Dredge, to a share of second on 12 under par 264. But the bare statistics do little to describe the drama and tension apparent on the Roman Road course on an incredible final afternoon.
All week, competitors had been caught in a log-jam at the top of the leaderboard, none more so than at the end of play on Thursday where a European Tour record was set when nine players tied for the first round lead. And so it continued right through to the final day when a play-off looked a racing certainty.
Ironically, one player who seemed destined not to figure in that was Sterne who dropped three shots in his first six holes to drop off the radar.
But the 25 year old, who has finished in the top five in four of his last five appearances including in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last week, showed tremendous courage to battle back.
A birdie at the seventh was followed by five more in a stunning back nine of 29 – including a superb three at the last from six feet after a scintillating approach shot – to move him out of the congestion at 12 under par and ahead of the clubhouse target set by Singapore’s Mardan Mamat, who carded a best of tournament 62 earlier in the day, and the Danish pairing of Søren Kjeldsen (65) and Mads Vibe-Hastrup (66).
However, in the final group behind him, Wales’ favourite son Dredge had charged back into contention. Like Sterne he had started poorly but three birdies in a row from the 15th had moved him to 13 under par standing on the final tee.
A par four would have meant a play-off and a birdie three victory but the 33 year old from Tredegar, who lost in a play-off to Padraig Harrington in the Irish Open two weeks ago, came up short once again.
His drive caught the fairway bunker from where he could only play out short and right of the green. A fine pitch shot finished six feet from the hole but he could only wince in agony, along with the majority of the gallery, as his par putt slipped past the hole.
It left Sterne the winner and the South African was understandably delighted. “It is always difficult when you are knocking on the door and you don’t win but I was playing well again this week and to get the breakthrough means a lot. It is a fantastic place here and so to win here makes it even more special,” he said.
“I was swinging well but didn’t get off to the best of starts which was strange. But my caddie said I was swinging well and anything could happen and I said to him coming down the seventh, if I can make six birdies coming in I’ll have a chance and I made my sixth one on the 18th and I was quite happy about that.
“Obviously the crowd didn’t want a South African to win but in sport strange things can happen. Bradley is a great player and he has been close a few times in his career as well and unfortunately that is how it goes. I am just happy to have made that putt.
“I was thinking that 13 under was going to be in a play-off, I didn’t expect him to bogey the last. I didn’t watch any of it. I knew that at 12 under you didn’t want a play-off with five or six guys. I knew I had to birdie the 18th and it is not often when you know you have to do something that you do it. So it is nice when you do do it.”
While Sterne was delighted, also understandably, Dredge was devastated. “I thought I had carried the bunker at the last there and I thought I needed par to win,” said the Welshman. “I took it down the right side and I thought I’d carried the bunker because it is about 290 downhill but I just caught it.
“I was in the same place as yesterday but I still caught a bit of sand behind it and didn’t get enough of the ball. I hit a good pitch, but missed the putt and that was it. It was about six or seven feet.
“I was going along and I was thinking it was just one of those days when things weren’t going my way and I wasn’t playing well front nine. At the end of the day you are just trying to compile a score and then all of a sudden I started to get the ball close to the hole and I was back in it. I was pleased to get the birdie run going on the back nine and when I holed on the 17th I thought that might be enough.
“When I was walking up to my pitch on the last my caddie said I had to get up and down to get in a play-off. I hit a good pitch and missed the putt. Tension? There is always tension over a six footer. There was a lot of tension over all the putts today.
“It was nice to see that the crowd stayed with me and stayed faithful. I think playing the ninth I was four behind and I needed I knew to do something because I was just cruising then and would probably have finished about 20th and that wasn’t my intention.”
