Fasth survives Langer heroics
SWEDEN’S Niclas Fasth withstood a remarkable charge by Bernhard Langer to win the BMW International by two strokes overnight.
Fasth’s closing two-under 70, for a 13-under 275, total kept out Langer, who had to settle for his fifth runner-up spot in the only Germany European Tour event he has never won.
Langer, finished with a 67 to share second place with Portugal’s Jose-Filipe Lima (72).Australia’s Peter Fowler, with a final-round 73, finished 10 shots behind the winner.
Three strokes ahead of the field at the turn, Fasth’s sixth European Tour title looked a formality, with the Swede in the form that earned him fourth place in the US Open.
But with the 49-year-old Langer holing a series of outrageous putts, a 40-footer, two 25-footers and two from 15 feet, and Fasth double-bogeying the 10th, the outcome remained in doubt until the 71st hole.
Langer tangled with the rough on 18 and could only manage par to set an 11-under target. Fasth stayed only one in front until holing a seven-footer for birdie on 17 to extend his victory margin.
“I’ve played some of the best golf of my life this week,” he said.
While Fasth took the $US445,000 ($526,000) winner’s cheque and with it a move close to the world’s top 20, Langer, who becomes a senior in August, claimed top marks for determination.
He slipped to five-over in the first round, sustaining a painful neck which had to be treated on the course and nearly caused him to withdraw, and could only manage a 76.
Fasth paid tribute to Langer’s efforts, adding: “It’s the sign of a great champion to have such a disastrous first round and come back like Bernhard did.”
Free of pain for the second round, Langer battled back with a 66 to make the cut on the 142 mark.
Two late bogeys marred his third round, leaving him five strokes off the lead, but his remarkable putting display in the final round, took Langer right onto Fasth’s shoulder.
“It was a great shame I had my injury on the first day or who knows what might have happened,” said Langer.
“I was trying to make a charge and holed some putts but then I had a couple of bad breaks, but that’s golf.”
It was Langer’s second runner-up spot of the year, having lost a play-off to South Africa’s Rory Sabbatini in the Crowne Plaza Invitational on the PGA Tour.
“Every once in a while the old swing shows up, the old talent shows, but unfortunately not often enough,” he said.
Lima’s birdie at the last took him alongside Langer, a stroke in front of Argentina’s Ricardo Gonzalez, Maarten Lafeber from the Netherland’s and Denmarks’ Anders Hansen.
Reuters