Ewen Ferguson wins second DP World Tour title in Northern Ireland

Ewen Ferguson went wire-to-wire at the ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics as he won his second DP World Tour title.

The Scotsman, who secured a maiden victory at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters in March, held off the challenge of close friend Connor Syme and Spaniard Borja Virto as he carded a one under par 69 to win by three strokes.

The 26-year-old led from the front after setting a new course record of 61, nine under par, at Galgorm Castle Golf Club in the first round of the innovative event, but it was a gutsy final day performance that saw him over the line. He played the front nine level par after two birdies and two bogeys and then parred his final eight holes after his third gain of the day on the tenth to reach 12 under. With his victory, he becomes the first Scotsman since Paul Lawrie in 2012 to win multiple times on the DP World Tour in a single season.

Virto was Ferguson’s nearest challenger down the stretch, but had to settle for a share of second with Syme after dropping two shots on his final five holes. Conversely, Syme birdied three of his closing four holes as he recorded his second successive runner-up finish after last week’s Cazoo Open.

Ewen Ferguson commented “It feels unbelievable. I just can’t believe how calm I was out there today. I think I couldn’t have worked out any better playing with Connor. I felt although I played with him the first two days and he was playing so, so good, and I felt he was my main rival for the day, so managing to play with him and hold each other off and keep up with each other was so good. Just can’t believe I’m a winner again.

“My brother and my dad are just everything for my golf. Everything, my whole family’s life revolves around me playing golf. Their happiness seems like it’s all about me and my golf. It’s been a good year, and obviously you get times where it doesn’t go so well, so I think you really need to appreciate things where you’re picking up trophies or you’re making cuts and you’re doing all right because it’s a really tough game.

Renato Paratore carded a six under par 64 to share fourth place, building on his T3 result at Celtic Manor last week. He was joined on eight under par by 2021 Challenge Tour Number One Marcus Helligkilde and Englishman Richard Mansell.

In the women’s event Sweden’s Maja Stark carded course record ten under par 63 as she stormed to a five-stroke victory, earning her first LPGA Tour title and third win of the year. The 22-year-old finished on 20 under par, five strokes ahead of Allisen Corpuz of the United States.