Sweden’s Robert Karlsson ended a two-year period without a European Tour victory to triumph at the Mercedes Benz Championships in Cologne, Germany.
Although he was given a one-stroke penalty after the third round, he still led the field by three shots going into the final day.
He closed with a 71 for a total of 13-under-par 275, having shot sub-70 rounds on the previous three days.
Karlsson ended up with a two-stroke victory over Italian Francesco Molinari, with former US Open champion Michael Campbell, of New Zealand, tied for third with Ross Fisher and Miguel Angel Jimenez on nine-under.
Karlsson, who towers over his rivals at six-foot, five-inches, was also head and shoulders ahead in terms of his golf at one time when he went into a six-stroke lead.
However, Molinari made a determined charge with four straight birdies from the 12th onwards while Karlsson dropped a shot on the 16th.
Molinari then missed two birdie chances on the final two holes to allow Karlsson to take what turned out to be a comfortable victory.
It was the first time Karlsson had won a tournament since the Deutsche Bank Championship in Germany in 2006.
Before this, a title was the only thing missing from a good year on the circuit after he finished eighth in the US Masters, fourth in the US Open and seventh in the British Open.
He also has six other top-10 finishes this season. He said in a European Tour article:
“It’s very nice to win, a great relief and it would have felt a bit strange not to win this season because I’ve been playing so well. It got closer than necessary maybe but I felt there was not much more I could do. All credit to Francesco, he played fantastic the last eight or nine holes.â€
On the LPGA Tour, Angela Stanford scored a one-over 73 in the final round to hold off the challenge of Feng Shanshan and win the Bell Micro Classic in Mobile, Alabama.
Feng shot 68 for a total of 10-under 278 and finished one stroke behind the eight-year tour veteran, who claimed the second title of her career.
