Scotland’s top-ranked Robert MacIntyre spoiled any hope of a third straight Masters invitation after a lifeless final round in the Magical Kenya Open in Nairobi.
The Oban lefty was left lamenting, managing just two birdies in a closing score of 70 to eventually finish in a distant share of seventh at 13-under on the host Muthaiga course.
Spaniard Jorge Campillo grabbed a fourth Tour win, and his first since March 2019, when he denied Border’s David Drysdale over five extra play-off holes at the 2019 CB Qatar Masters.
Campillo, 36, played alongside MacIntyre to set-up victory with three straight birdies from the sixth hole on route to a 66 for a two-shot win at 18-under.
Spaniard Jorge Campillo captures the 2023 Magical Kenya Open (Photo – DP World Tour)
MacIntyre went into the final round just a shot off the lead but was left behind in his climb to a hopeful third Tour win on the second highest course hosting the DP World Tour.
He was in the trees off the third in taking a bogey and while grabbing a birdie at the fifth for a third of four days, there was little spark in MacIntyre’s game, making the turn at level and five adrift of Campillo. He birdied the 10th, to be five-under for the event at the par-5, but simply left himself too much to do, and not helped by eight closing pars.
A MacIntyre victory would have seen him jump 31 spots to World No. 63 and qualify for the March 22nd commencing WGC – Dell Match-Play in Austin, Texas while a decent result in the Lone Star State may have seen the Scot move into the top-50.
MacIntyre, as well, has not entered the next two DP World Tour events in South Africa which rules out breaking into the world’s top-50 though he should correct his slide down the World Rankings and pick-up some five spots in moving back to World No. 89.
Peebles attached Craig Howie (67) and Craigielaw’s Grant Forrest (65) shared 11th place at 12-under and with Howie missing out on a top-10 that would have qualified him for a place in this week’s first joint DP World/Sunshine Tour hosting of the SDC Championship at Eastern Cape, right in the south-eastern corner of South Africa.
Forrest, who had a bout of food poisoning at the start of the week, was delighted to grab a third top-13 result in his past three events, and capping his last round with a seventh hole eagle ‘3’ sandwiched between birdies at six, eight, nine and 10.
He said: “It’s been a long week, having had food poisoning since Thursday night, a bit of a battle to keep my energy up.
“So, delighted to get on a bit of a hot run today. It’s another good result given I was battling to make the cut on Friday, and to play the weekend in 10-under was good”.
Gleneagles attached Callum Hill, who also contracted food poisoning, posted a 66 to finish T29th at 10-under.
