An emotional Thomas Aiken endeared himself to all by dedicating his Spanish Open success, and his first European Tour victory, to the late Seve Ballesteros.
Aiken, 27 was never headed over a very sombre weekend winning by two strokes with a final round 70 for a 10-under par tally on the El Prat course in Barcelona.
Thomas Aiken dedicates first Tour success to Seve
Dane Anders Hansen (70) was second on eight under par with Glasgow’s Scott Jamieson (71) and Barcelona favourite Pablo Larrazabal (71) sharing third on seven under par.
The result is Jamieson’s best since joining the Tour and also his third top-10 in nine events.
Aiken, who has contested 104 Tour events, won on the 30th anniversary of Ballesteros’ first of three Spanish Open titles.
It was a weekend of extreme sadness and as reflected in Aitken’s victory comments.
“I have been waiting for this win for a long, long time and I’ve been knocking on the door, and actually could not have picked a better week to cross the finish line first,” said the proud South African.
“It’s been a bit of sad week from a golfing point of view with Seve passing away.
“So I definitely want to dedicate this win to him for being his home Open and him being the man that he was, and what he gave to golf, and what he gave to us as fellow players.
“So this one’s for Seve but I’m just ecstatic to get a win under my belt.”
Aiken along with Jamieson and Larrazabal was also handed a five kilogram Spanish ham worth Euro 500.
Scott Jamieson sinks his teeth into a Euro 500 Spanish ham.
Overwhelming crowd favourite Larrazbal was clearly very emotional over the final day’s play looking not only for his own victory tribute to Seve but to write what would have been indeed a remarkabe script.
Though it was not to be for the very popular Spaniard.
Scotland’s Paul Lawrie produced the second best round of the day, a 67 to end in a six-way share fifth place at six under par and in the Aberdonian’s first event since winning the Andalucian Open.
And the passing of Ballesteros during a Spanish Open week was not lost on the fellow Open Champion.
“It’s been a strange and sombre week with Saturday being more like a morgue but you get on with it and try and do your job,” said Lawrie.
“However it’s just unbelievable it’s happened this week and for Seve to pass away during a Spanish Open is just amazing.
“But then Seve’s timing was always immaculate.”
