Canizares Sails to Wire-to-Wire European Tour Title


With a six-stroke lead entering the final round of the Trophee Hassan II, Alejandro Canizares' main goal was to maintain the keen focus he had all week. And that's what the 31-year-old Spaniard did on Sunday at Morocco's Golf du Palais Royal.

After opening with rounds of 62, 68 and 69, Canizares closed with a steady 2-under 70 to finish at 19-under 269, five strokes ahead of England's Andy Sullivan.

The wire-to-wore win was the second European Tour title in Canizares' career. His first came at the 2006 Imperial Collection Russian Open.

His margin of victory could have been greater. Before teeing off on the par-4 18th, Canizares was at 21-under par for the tournament thanks to six birdies and a pair of bogeys in the final round. But on the last his approach rolled back off the green and was stopped by a divot that had not been properly replaced.

After an official denied his request to move the turf, he advanced the ball only a few yards with the third and the ball rolled back almost to his feet. From there, Canizares miss-hit his fourth before getting up and down for a double-bogey and his ultimate 19-under total.

"It's been a long time since the last one and felt like it was never coming," Canizares told Sky Sports. "This week I played great, some of the best golf of my career. I hit good shots after good shots, kept the focus and it's a pity it ended like that, but who cares.

"It's a special moment and I can't wait to get back home and celebrate with the family. Hopefully this is a step towards a little bit of improvement in my career I have some stuff to work on but hopefully I improve little by little to get to a point where I can play golf as natural as I did this week."

Sullivan carded the low round of the day, a 9-under 63, to end up two shots ahead of fellow Brit Seve Benson (71) and Sweden's Magnus Carlsson (68).

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2014/tournamentid=2014019/leaderboard/index.html.