Frenchman Benjamin Herbert fired a three-under 69 on Sunday and won the Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final at the beautiful Al Badia Golf Club on the European Challenge Tour.
The 27-year-old from Brive-la-Gaillarde, on Saturday shot a bogey-free round to take a two-shot lead heading in to the final day. On Sunday, he got off to a fast start with a birdie on the opening hole, then followed that with three consecutive pars, and birdies on the fifth and sixth holes.
Hebert would score his first bogey in 32 holes, right before making the turn on the par-4 ninth. He would birdie back-to-back holes on the 14th and 15th and moved at the time to 13-under. He would find trouble one more time on the par-4 17th where he settled for bogey before closing with a par on the home hole.
Hebert finished at 12-under-par 276, five shots clear of fellow countryman Jerome Lando Casanova, who also shot 69 on Sunday to finish in solo second-place one ahead of Welshman Oliver Farr who shot 73 to finish in solo third.
Former U.S. Amateur champion, Byeong-hun An, ended alone in fourth at five-under after firing a closing round of four-under 68. Belgium’s Hugues Joannes (70) and Italy’s Alessandro Tadini shared fifth at four-under 284.
In a tie for seventh place were France’s Cyril Bouniol (70) and Germany’s Bern Ritthammer (73) at three-under 285. Rounding up the Top 10 finishers was a four-way tie for ninth at two-under 286 between and France’s Edourd Espana (72), Englishmen Andrew Johnston (72) and Robert Coles (74), and Spain’s Jordi Garcia Pinto (75).
This was his third victory of the season for Hebert on the European Challenge Tour, and the sixth win of his career on that tour. He also won three times in the 2011 season, and now makes history by becoming the first man to win three tournaments on the European Challenge Tour in separate seasons.
Germany’s Mortiz Lampert also won three times on the Challenge Tour this season, earning his automatic promotion to the European Tour after his win at the Azerbaijan Golf Challenge Open in early August.
Following the event, the Top-15 players on the season long Order of Merit earned their European Tour cards for 2015. The biggest news here was Lando Casanova who soared 25 spots to No. 13 thanks to his solo second place finish. The final 15 were:
Rank | Player Name | Nat | Tournaments | Money |
1 | Andrew JOHNSTON | ENG | 16 | €190,856 |
2 | Benjamin HEBERT | FRA | 20 | €178,266 |
3 | Byeong-hun ANG | KOR | 21 | €150,107 |
4 | Moritz LAMPERT | GER | 11 | €137,194 |
5 | Mark TULLO | CHI | 20 | €129,968 |
6 | Sam HUTSBY | ENG | 21 | €128,984 |
7 | Jordi GARCIA PINTO | ESP | 18 | €112,317 |
8 | Jason PALMER | ENG | 24 | €108,056 |
9 | Michael LORENZO-VERA | FRA | 17 | €106,796 |
10 | Oliver FARR | WAL | 22 | €101,476 |
11 | Edouard ESPANA | FRA | 23 | €95,012 |
12 | Florian FRITSCH | GER | 15 | €92,943 |
13 | Jerome LANDO CASANOVA | FRA | 22 | €88,785 |
14 | Jake ROOS | RSA | 18 | €87,431 |
15 | Jason BARNES | ENG | 23 | €77,793 |