Rumford holds on for maiden Tour title - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Rumford holds on for maiden Tour title

16/06/2003 06:00:32 AM Comments (0)

Australian Brett Rumford broke his European Tour duck at the St Omer Open on Sunday.

The 25-year-old from Perth shot a final round 67 for a 15 under par total of 269 to beat Briton Ben Mason by five strokes with Italian Federico Bsazza a four shots adrift in third.

Rumford, who shot a course record 64 on Thursday, picks up a cheque for STG46,901 ($A117,945.43) but more importantly an 18 month Tour exemption which means he will be able to carry out his duties as best man at his brother's wedding which would have clashed with the qualifying school.

He never looked in danger of repeating his final round collapse at the Ericsson Masters in 2001 when he slumped to a final round 76 to hand victory to Colin Montgomerie.

He said: "I'm very proud of myself. Ben was coming at me early so I had to dig deep and play the golf I had done all week.

"Now I want to enjoy this because I've waited so long for it. The exemption is of huge significance and was what we were all playing for this week because the prize money alone was not enough to get your card."

He did have one shaky moment when his second shot at the ninth went within three inches of going out of bounds, but he escaped with a par five.

"That was extremely lucky," conceded Rumford.

"That could have been a turning point and all of a sudden it would have probably been tied instead of three ahead but they are the breaks you need when you win tournaments."

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