Kjeldsen Wins Irish Open in Playoff


Søren Kjeldsen birdied the first playoff hole, the par-5 18th at Royal County Down in Northern Ireland, to win the Irish Open. The victory, the fourth on the European Tour for the 40-year-old Dane, was his first since 2009.

Kjeldsen began the final round two strokes ahead of Spain's Rafa Cabrera-Bello and German Maximilian Kieffer. But on a Sunday with 40-mph gusts and periodic rain, he closed with a 5-over 76 to fall into a tie with England's Eddie Pepperell (69) and Austria's Bernd Wiesberger (73) at 2-under 282.

After a good drive on the first extra hole, Kjeldsen found the green in two and two-putted for the winning birdie that Pepperell and Wiesberger couldn't match.

Kjeldsen admitted that he was nervous down the stretch. "The last breath I took was on about the 14th," he told the European Tour's website. "I had decided not to look at leaderboards but once I started dropping shots I started looking because it gave me a little pleasure that I wasn't the only one struggling because it was such a brutal day.

"I was leaking shots left, right and center but made a great up and down on 15 and the 3-wood second shot in the playoff was pretty special." His final 2-foot putt rattled around the cup but stayed in.

Of his finish, Wiesberger said, "Just two bad chips on 18 that kind of cost me in the end to go to another extra hole. But all in all . . . I have to be very proud and I'm quite happy with second place, and especially going into my favorite event in a couple weeks, I hope I can go one better."

Pepperell shot a bogey-free final round, a remarkable performance considering the difficult conditions in which only five players broke par over 72 holes. "On the whole I'm very pleased, I think," the 24-year-old said.

Cabrera-Bello (75) and England's Tyrrell Hatton (74) shared fourth at 1-under 283. Tied for sixth at even-par 284 were two Brits, Danny Willett (68) and Andy Sullivan (71), while sharing eighth at 285 on the classic par-71 links course were England's Matthew Fitzpatrick (72 and Kieffer (77).

American Rickie Fowler, the highest-ranked player in the field after tournament host Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia failed to make the 36-hole cut, closed with a 73 to end up tied for 30th at 7-over 291.

For all the scores, visit http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/season=2015/tournamentid=2015040/leaderboard/index.html.