Turkish Airlines Open: Tyrrell Hatton wins dramatic playoff under the lights

England’s Tyrrell Hatton is the 2019 Turkish Airlines Open after winning a six-man playoff under the floodlights at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal.

Tyrrell Hatton required four playoff holes to eventually get the job done at the Turkish Airlines Open, with a par on the 76th hole of the week enough to take the victory.

The six men who made the playoff were Tyrrell Hatton, South Africa’s Erik van Rooyen, the French duo of Benjamin Hebert and Victor Perez, American Kurt Kitayama and overnight leader, Matthias Schwab, who saw his three-stroke 54-hole lead vanish with his worst round of the week, a 2-under par 70 that opened the door for such a crowded overtime crew.

The par-5 18th was the hole played four times through the playoff, with artificial light required as darkness fell in Antalya.

Hatton, Schwab, and Kitayama all birdied it the first time around, while pars for Hebert and Perez, and a bogey for van Rooyen saw them all drop out of the running.

After three par-5s on the second playoff hole, the trio went back to the 18th tee, with Kitayama dropping out after the third attempt, thanks to only making a par.

In the end, Tyrrell Hatton and Schwab played the 1st hole four extra times, with a par enough for the Englishman to take victory, as the Austrian could only manage a bogey on the 76th.

https://twitter.com/EuropeanTour/status/1193548555052625920

Hatton pocketed $2,000,000 for the win, the biggest ever prize for a European Tour victor, and he will also move inside the top ten on the Race to Dubai leaderboard.

Credit has to go to Kitayama, van Rooyen and Perez, who carded 64, 65 and 65 respectively, just to make the playoff.

The leading six finished the event at -20 and were two shots clear of the chasing pack. Shubhankar Sharma and Robert MacIntyre finished in a tie for 7th, with the Indian also carding a 64 in the final day to fly up the leaderboard.

Frenchman Romain Langasque and Italian Guido Migliozzi both shot 65s on the final day to move into the top ten, with Lee Westwood, Ross Fisher, and Patrick Reed also in a tie for 10th come to the end of the tournament.

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The two-time defending champion Justin Rose shot a 68 on the final day, but he was out of contention going into Sunday’s play. The former U.S. Open champion finished in a tie for 21st.

Justin Harding, Thomas Detry and Tom Lewis all only managed level-par rounds of 72 around the Montgomerie Maxx Royal in their final rounds, dropping out of the top 25.

Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti had the worst day of the top group, as his round of 76 saw him fall out of the top ten and into a tie for 38th.

Francesco Molinari and Matt Wallace also shot over par on the final day, while Spaniard Nacho Elviro carded the only 80+ round of the week, as his 81 dropped him from inside the top 40 down to a tie for 67th.

The European Tour moves on to South Africa for the next event, the Nedbank Golf Challenge, which will see the filed cut down to the top 60 on the Race to Dubai list.

It will be the penultimate event in the 2019 European Tour season, with only the DP World Tour Championship to come after that.

Leaderboard:

1 (-20, Playoff Win): Tyrrell Hatton (ENG)

T2 (-20): Kurt Kitayama (USA), Erik van Rooyen (RSA), Victor Perez (FRA), Benjamin Hebert (FRA), Matthias Schwab (AUT)

Selected Others:

T17 (-14): Thomas Pieters (BEL), Zander Lombard (RSA)

T21 (-13): Justin Rose (ENG), Ryan Fox (NZL)

T25 (-12): Joost Luiten (NED), Justin Harding (RSA)