Birthday boy Danny Willett buried a golf bag full of off-course heath issues to pocket a cool £578,000 first prize cheque in brilliantly capturing the 20th anniversary Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews.
A packed crowd gathered around the 18th green and spilled onto the last fairway of the famed Old Course to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the 34-year-old Englishman who won by two shots with a closing 68 for an 18-under par tally.
It is Willett’s eighth European Tour success and a first in just over two years while it’s a first in Scotland finishing clear of Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren (66) and former double Dunhill winning Tyrrell Hatton (67).
Willett, a father of two, was near in tears after his victory.
Danny Willett celebrates his 34th birthday winning Alfred Dunhill Links
He said: “Hearing everyone sing ‘Happy Birthday’ was great and that has to be a first on the Old Course.
“It’s just great to win again because it has been a very unfortunate last eight months, really. Every time the game feels like it’s been in a nice place, we’ve had a couple of things, issues with health, just things that you can’t really avoid.
“We’ve had COVID, wisdom teeth problems, appendix issues, they’re not things that — they are just things, and they seem to have knocked us back a peg or two, and never really been able to get the momentum going in.
“This one, for everyone watching, this seems quite out of the blue, but the practice I’ve been doing at home and the inner belief we have every time we get in and out of position to do something was proven again.
“Like I said before, it doesn’t matter where it is, who it’s against, it’s just a question if the game is in shape. When it is, we’re all right”.
However, eight closing pars robbed Willett and his famed Seminole Golf Club partner, Jimmy Dunne robbed the duo of the team prize that was won in a countback by Belfast’s Michael Hoey and playing partner, Maeve Danaher and estranged wife of Ireland’s Jerry McManus.
