What a Finnish! Valimaki seals maiden win in dramatic play-off
Oman Open report: What happened at Al Mouj Golf?
A play-off was needed to decide a winner in Oman as Brandon Stone and Sami Valimaki went toe-to-toe after both finishing fast to reach the summit of the leaderboard.
Stone, who was playing in the penultimate group, shot 2-under for the day and holed a stunning birdie putt at the last to set the clubhouse target and pile the pressure onto Valimaki who required a birdie at 18 to force the play-off.
WOW!! 🤯@BrandonMStone drains from off the green at the last to take the outright lead!#OmanOpen pic.twitter.com/ubtxFsXPBz
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) March 1, 2020
Despite his inexperience on the European Tour he also carded a round of 2-under after rolling in a brilliant 25-footer to take the contest to extra holes.
INCREDIBLE!
21-year-old @sami_valimaki holes a monster to force a play-off! 🥊#OmanOpen pic.twitter.com/AY6EFCaqD1
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) March 1, 2020
Valimaki, who turned professional in 2019 and was making just his sixth European Tour start, was first to play in the play-off and found the centre of the fairway as he did on all three playings of the 18th in the play-off.
Stone opted for a driving iron as opposed to his rival’s 3-wood and also found the fairway each time. After the first set of approaches Valimaki held the advantage but could only match Stone’s par and with the roles reversed on the next two pars were carded again.
With both players in the fairway on the third play-off hole, Stone turned his approach over, clattering into the gallery on the left of the green which left the door open for his opponent who stepped right through.
Valimaki found the centre of the green with his approach and was very much in the driving seat. Stone’s chip raced past the hole and a two-putt bogey was the best he could manage before leaving the stage clear for Valimaki to clean up for his par.
The Finn has done it! 🇫🇮🏆@sami_valimaki is the #OmanOpen Champion in just his 6th ever European Tour appearance! pic.twitter.com/8FSpernYug
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) March 1, 2020
Adrien Saddier finished closest to the leading pair and held the clubhouse lead until Stone completed his round and had put together a final round of 3-under despite opening with back-to-back bogeys.
Oman Open report: Talking point
After Sungjae Im’s extremely lucky tee shot at the WGC-Mexico we thought we’d seen just about everything there was to see in terms of lucky golf shots.
But Callum Shinkwin had other ideas as he unintentionally used the rocks in Oman and got very lucky himself.
Check out what happened here.
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Tommy Fleetwood and Lee Westwood led the way for the Europeans over at the Honda Classic this weekend on the PGA Tour.
The event at PGA National saw Brendan Steele hit the most unlucky shot of the year, Luke Donald have his introduction butchered by a first tee announcer and Paul Azinger take a swip at teh European Tour.
Joe Hughes
Tour editor covering men's golf, women's golf and anything else that involves the word golf, really. The talk is far better than the game, but the work has begun to change that.
