Shocked Dan Bradbury wins Open de France: "My goal was to make the cut"
England's Dan Bradbury held his nerve down the stretch to claim the 2024 Open de France at Le Golf National in Paris.
D. Bradbury | -16 |
Y. Paul | -15 |
J. Winther | -15 |
T. Olesen | -15 |
S. Bairstow | -15 |
F. Laporta | -14 |
M. Jordan | -14 |
G. Wiebe | -13 |
J. Veerman | -13 |
S. Forsstrom | -12 |
England's Dan Bradbury held his nerve down to stretch of the Open de France to claim his second title on the DP World Tour.
Bradbury, 25, trailed Denmark's Jeff Winther by two strokes heading into the final round at Le Golf National.
A final round of 5-under 66 saw the Englishman reach a four-round total of 16-under par to seal victory by one .
Yannik Paul, Thorbjorn Olesen, Sam Bairstow and the aforementioned Winther finished in a tie for second on 15-under par.
"I don't know how to feel to be honest, I really don't know," a shocked Bradbury told Sky Sports in the immediate aftermath of victory.
He said his goal this week was to simply make the cut and ensure that he didn't have to go back to Q-School later this year.
The leaderboard was tight all day but Bradbury found himself in front after three consecutive birdies from the 14th.
He closed with two pars but had to endure a long wait before hitting his approach into the famed 18th hole.
With the pin on the front right and water looming, Bradbury said that he was just trying to hit the green.
He would have accepted a three-putt, he said.
"We all know with the finish around here that anything can happen," he said.
"And it almost did."
Bradbury was alluding to the fact that he left himself needing to two-putt from 46 feet to post the clubhouse lead.
He managed to brush home a three-footer for par before nervously waiting to see if his score could be matched.
In the group behind, Olesen and Bairstow could only manage pars.
Cue relief for the Wakefield native.
Bradbury claimed his maiden DP World Tour victory at the 2022 Joburg Open.
He has endured a tough season so far, missing as many as 13 cuts from 24 starts.
But the victory means that he will now be teeing it up at the two playoff events in November to conclude the 2023-2024 DP World Tour season.
The Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship takes place over 7-10 November
The DP World Tour Championship, which as a $10m purse, will be played a week after that at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
