Luke Donald was crowned ‘King of the Castle’ in winning the rain-affected Barclays Scottish Open at Castle Stuart.
The World No. 1 ranked Donald warmed-up for this week’s Open Championship in the best way possible winning by four shots in carding a final round 63 for a 19-under par tally under a ‘preferred lie’ rule.
'King of the Castle' - Luke Donald, 2011 Barclays Scottish Open champion. (Photo - Stuart Adams).
Donald had commenced the last day in a share of fifth place at one stroke behind four players who led at 11-under par.
It is Donald’s third success this year and his sixth European Tour success and his 10th worldwide with a round that included nine birdies and among them four in succession from the third hole.
“It’s been a long week with so many delays but conditions were good today for scoring and I took advantage of it,” said Donald.
“I holed putts when I needed to, and it’s nice to do it when it matters. Certainly I did that today. So it’s nice to get another victory, too. I think I can get used to this.”
“Some of my other victories have been very close coming down the 18th, and with still four or five holes to go, the goal was to make three birdies,” he said.
“I knew that there were still a lot of opportunities for birdies; that someone could go on a run behind me and I needed to keep pressing on. “But then when I birdied 15, 16 and the last, I accomplished that goal.”
Donald was heading straight to Royal St. George’s in Kent to prepare for Thursday’s starting 140th Open Championship.
However against Donald capturing a first Major is the rare accomplishment in golf of players having won the week before and then winning a Major.
American Phil Mickelson managed ‘the double’ win 2006 in capturing the BellSouth Classic and then the second of three Masters titles.
And former long time World No. 1 has four times won the WGC – Bridgestone Invitational ahead of also capturing the U.S. PGA Championship.
“I don’t think it’s ever been done, has it winning the Scottish and The Open?” Donald asked.
“But whatever I see this win as all positives.
“ I’ll be high on confidence. I’m hitting the ball nicely and to do it on a links course is even better.
“That’s the one reason why I decided to play in Scotland this year, because of the move here to Castle Stuart, so I’m looking forward to hopefully bringing this game to next week.”
Sweden’s Frederik Andersson Hed carded a last round of 62 to finish a distant second on 15-under par and in his best finish second winning last year’s BMW Italian Open.
However Andersson Hed’s 10-under par last day total will not be recognised as the new Castle Stuart course record as the round was player under the ‘preferred lie’ rule.
Six players shared third place at 14-under par including Argentina’ Angel Cabrera (67), Italian Lorenzo Galgi (66), Chilean Mark Tullo (66), South African George Coetzee (67), Belguim’s Nicolas Colsaerts (67) and Scotland’s Scott Jamieson (69).
But it was Jamieson with one of the biggest smiles.
Despite commencing the final round in a four-way share of the lead at 11-under par, the 27-year old Tour rookie holed a 20-foot birdie putt on 18 in a round of 69 to earn a place in this week’s Open Championship.
Cabrera and Colsaerts were already exempt with Jamieson earning the place as his current 205th World Ranking was lower than Coetzee (155th), Tullo (232nd) and Gagli (353rd).
