BMW International Open: Matt Wallace a winner in Germany

A mix of players had a chance to win down the stretch, but 10-under posted by Matt Wallace proved to be the magic number to prevail at the BMW International Open

The finale of the BMW International Open had a little bit of everything. Thorbjorn Olesen stormed out of nowhere for an 11-under 61 on Sunday to post 9-under for the tournament and set the tournament and course record at Gut Laerchenhof.

Olesen’s score loomed large on the leaderboard for some time as home favorite, Martin Kaymer, recent winner Mikko Korhonen and red-hot Lucas Bjerregaard were among the chasers.

In the end, Matt Wallace’s 7-under 65 capped by an impressive two-putt par on the 18th lifted him past a pack whose collective bids almost all but ended before reaching 18 green.

Wallace began the day two off the lead on a bunched leaderboard. There were 28 players within four of the lead entering Sunday.

Wallace birdied two of his first three holes to make a move early. He coasted for six pars to close out the front nine in 34, but he knew he needed a masterful back nine to catch Olesen who was already in the clubhouse teeing off three hours before Wallace and nearly four hours in front of the final group.

The Englishman Wallace, already a winner in 2018 at the Indian Open, answered the bell.

He birdied the second-toughest hole on the course, the par-4 10th, and made par on the toughest 12th to make it to a gettable back stretch of the final nine.

The champion made birdie at 13, 15 and 16 to surpass Olesen. Still with contenders behind him on the course, Wallace would have liked to birdie the par-4 17th. It played short and reachable at under 300 yards and was the fourth-easiest hole for the tournament, but it proved difficult for the finishers.

Wallace could only make par and caught a good break on his tee shot on the par-4 18th which nearly found a fairway bunker.

Sunday was further example that Wallace is a stud when he’s in the mix late in a tournament. He won a whopping six times on the Alps Tour in 2016, won a co-sanctioned European Tour/Challenge Tour event in 2017 and is now twice a winner on the European Tour in 2018.

If he plays well at these three Rolex Series events, then the Open Championship, it’s not too late for the 28-year-old to make a final hour Ryder Cup push. This win locks up a spot in the PGA Championship and has him inching closer to a top-50 world ranking.

Close, but no cigar for Olesen, Kaymer

Looking at the leaderboard after 54 holes, it was foreseeable how someone could post a low score early and hang on to win. It just didn’t look in the cards for Thorbjorn Olesen.

The Dane is a recent winner on the European Tour and a pre-tournament favorite, but a Thursday 73 and a Saturday 77 seemed too damaging.

Instead, he played the tougher front nine in four-under 32 before scorching the back for 29. He birdied each of his last four holes and was bogey-free on a good day for scoring in Pulheim, Germany.

Olesen ended up sharing second place at 9-under and one behind Wallace with Kaymer and Korhonen.

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Olesen’s playing partner, Justin Walters, also shot 8-under 64 for the second-lowest score of the day. Walters climbed 33 spots to finish T9 at 6-under while Olesen vaulted 40 spots to T2.

Kaymer was with fellow German Maximillian Kieffer in the penultimate pairing at 5-under. He went out in 1-under. Three birdies in his first six holes on the back pushed him to 9-under.

Kaymer missed a birdie putt on 16 but appeared in prime position to birdie 17 or at least make par with a chance coming down the 72nd hole.

His shaky short game balked at the worst time as he scuffed a short wedge shot through the green and failed to get up and down. A phenomenal birdie look turned into a bogey, spearing Kaymer’s chances to win for the first time since 2014.

Korhonen birdied 15-17 to reach 9-under. He had a long birdie putt slide by on the 72nd that would have forced a playoff.

Aaron Rai reached 8-under with three to play but a trio of pars resulted in a T5 finish with Bjerregaard.

Bjeregaard was in the final group with Chris Paisley (who quickly fell out of the picture) and, like Rai, reached 8-under with three to play and closed with three pars.

Next: 3M Open brings long-overdue PGA TOUR stop back to Minnesota

Chip shots – Quick hits from the BMW International Open

• Matt Wallace hit 79.2 percent of greens in regulation to lead the field. Good thing he hit so many, because he won despite finishing 67th in putts per GIR.
• Journeyman Finn Mikko Korhonen has found something at age 37. His T2 finish at the BMW International Open is his third top-three finish in 2018,
• After winning three times last year on the Challenge Tour, Englishman Aaron Rai is getting it going on the big stage. His T5 is his best European Tour result and his second top-10 this season.
• Martin Kaymer will feel like he let a great opportunity slip, but he still recorded his second top-10 in his last three starts. He’s been dormant for four years now, but the 33-year-old still has time to add to his impressive resume.
• Other notable results: T9. Andy Sullivan (-6), T12. Sergio Garcia (-5), T18. Thomas Pieters (-5), T59. Tommy Fleetwood (+4), Ernie Els (MC, +7), Eddie Pepperell (DQ, +5)
• Next up: The first of three Rolex Series events in a row leading up to the Open Championship, the Open de France at Le Golf Nacional, site of the 2018 Ryder Cup in Paris. Justin Thomas, Tommy Fleetwood and Sergio Garcia headline a stacked field next week.

Top-10 leaderboard

1. Matt Wallace (-10)

T2. Mikko Korhonen, Thorbjorn Olesen, Martin Kaymer (-9)

T5. Aaron Rai, Lucas Bjerregaard (-8)

T7. Soren Kjeldsen, Scott Hend (-7)

T9. Justin Walters, Nacho Elvira, Andy Sullivan (-6)