Germany’s Marcel Siem missed his chance in regulation, but made amends for it on the first hole of the sudden death playoff, to defeat Alexander Levy and Ross Fisher and win the BMW Masters played at the Lake Malaren Golf Course in Shanghai, China.
Levy looked well on his way to his third win of the season after opening a four-shot overnight lead thanks to rounds of 65-66-63. His total for the tournament was at 22-under after three rounds and dating back to his win at the shortened Portugal Masters, the 24-year-old Frenchman had been on fire with a collective 40-under during his previous five stroke-play rounds.
But on Sunday, strong wind conditions rendered everyone vulnerable, and Levy hit a series of poor shots and nervous putts that resulted in six bogeys and a double bogey on his final round of 78. That left him in a tie at 16-under 272 with Siem and the Englishman Fisher, and forcing extra holes.
Fisher had set the early clubhouse lead after shooting head-and-shoulders above the rest, the best round of the day with a five-under 67. With it, he made an improbable erasing of an 11-shot deficit to Levy that would have set a European Tour record if he had gone on to win. But he had to wait for Siem and Levy on the final group to know his fate.
Siem started the day five shots behind Levy, and didn’t have the best of rounds, shooting a one-over 73. His back nine was awful having bogeyed the even-numbered holes (10th, 12th, 14th, 16th) prior to reaching the 18th.
It would’ve been fitting that he would bogey that one as well to continue the trend, but with a six-foot par-putt for the win, you would’ve thought he had it in the bank. But he didn’t bank on his winning chance and bogeyed the hole, which in addition to Levy’s bogey send the tournament to a sudden death playoff.
The trio returned to the 18th and Levy and Fisher had birdie-putt chances while Siem was 30-feet away in the collar of the green. But Siem would amend his earlier mistake by going on and chip-in the ball for a birdie and the pressure shift to Levy and Fisher’s putts.
Both Levy and Fisher would miss the birdie chances and handed the 34-year-old German the win and the €1.66 million paycheck that goes to the victor, and the cancelling of a planned holiday in Thailand that Siem had for next week.
Siem’s victory means he will be playing in next weekend’s HSBC Champions across the city and not vacationing. It also means he won for the third straight season on the European Tour, his fourth overall title in 331 starts on Tour.
He moves to 2,190,153 points in The Race to Dubai, and could move to inside the top 70 of the Official World Golf Ranking from 152nd.
Jamie Donaldson, member of the winning European Ryder Cup team and who played also on the final group with Siem and Levy, missed short his birdie chance on the 18th that would have placed him in the playoff.
He finished in a tie for fourth place with fellow Ryder Cup star Justin Rose, who had bogey on the same hole in a closing round of 72.
Midway leader, Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts (71), and Frechman Romain Wattel (70) finished one back at 14-under in a tie for sixth place. American Ryan Palmer (70) and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo (72) finished tied for eighth at 13-under.
Rounding up the Top 10 finishers with at 12-under T10 were Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti (69), Finland’s Mikko Ilonen (71) and South African George Coetzee (71).
For the local Chinese contingent, Dong Su was their best finisher at six-under, tied for 26th after a final round of 78. He started the day tied for 18th.
The BMW Masters was the first of four events in the European Tour's Final Series. The Series will cross the Shanghai City to play the second of the series, the WGC - HSBC Champions in the Sheshan International Golf Course, which Dustin Johnson won last year and will not defend.