Make sure you stay up to date with the European Tour this weekend with NCG’s 2019 Oman Open leaderboard.
The details
Venue: Al Mouj Golf, Muscat, Oman
Date: February 28-March 3, 2019
Par: 72
Yardage 7,365 yards
Course summary: The Al Mouj course was a feature of the Challenge Tour before its debut in the big leagues last year. It’s renowned for large and heavily contoured greens and water is plentiful – coming into play on 10 holes. Wind is a big defence on a links-style layout that runs along the Gulf of Oman shoreline.
Purse: $1.75 million
Defending champion: Joost Luiten (-16)
2019 Oman Open leaderboard
Oman Open report: So what happened?
In amongst all the sandstorms in Muscat it was Kurt Kitayama from Las Vegas who pipped everyone for his second win in 11 starts in his rookie season.
The 26-year-old birdied 16 and 17 on a day of 33 holes for him to pip Clement Sordet and Maximilian Kieffer after producing one of the gutsiest comebacks earlier in the week.
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Kitayama ran up a quadruple bogey to start his third round, had three more bogeys in his next four holes but still somehow got it round in under par. He is only the second player in European Tour history to record an 8 on a par 4 and still win.
Much was expected of Kitayama after coming three all three stages of Q School and he then won in Mauritius in December and he’s now a two-time winner after timing his run to perfection.
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It had looked like this putt from Sordet, who was also at Q School down in Lumine just a few months ago, would be the difference but he then three-putted the 72nd hole while Kieffer made a mess of his approach at the 17th and they eventually shared second spot with Jorge Campillo and Fabrizio Zanotti.
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Click here to read Mark Townsend’s full report from the 2019 Oman Open.
Click here for the full list of European Tour results.
Slow play and what actually happens on the European Tour
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