Julien Guerrier overcame Jorge Campillo to claim his maiden DP World Tour title on his 230th attempt after an epic nine-hole playoff at the Andalucia Masters.
The Frenchman began the day 19-under for the tournament following rounds of 62, 72 and 63 to leave him tied at the top of the leaderboard with Campillo, with the gap to third a healthy three shots.
Guerrier set the early pace with birdies at the second, third and fifth to open up a two-shot lead after Campillo could only birdie the second.
Campillo then brought the pair back level with birdies of his own at the sixth and seventh, and they still couldn’t be separated at the turn.
Campillo, playing in his homeland, then opened up a two-shot lead on the 10th with his fourth birdie of the day as Guerrier pulled his tee shot on the dogleg par-4 and landed on top of a wall that marks the line between safe and penalty stroke.
Saved by the... bush... 🙊 pic.twitter.com/G7vTs1tBU9October 20, 2024
With OB the other side of the wall, it was playable for Guierrier, so he chopped his ball off the top of the wall and back into the rough but ultimately still bogeyed the hole.
At that point, Campillo was yet to make a bogey all week, so it looked odds-on that Guerrier would need to rely on a quick recovery and his ability to get his challenge back on track.
He did just that with back-to-back birdies on the 11th and 12th, and he was helped even more when Campillo found the water on the 12th leading to the elusive bogey that had taken 66 holes to arrive.
That put Guerrier back into the lead, but he let Campillo off the hook on the 13th with a double bogey, and Campillo extended his lead with a birdie at the 14th.
With a two-shot lead and just four holes to play, it looked like Campillo’s title to lose given his consistency through the week, but then his second and third bogeys of the tournament arrived on the 15th and 18th to see the two into a playoff.
Given the pair’s inability to break too far free of one another over the first 18 holes, it was perhaps likely that a lengthy period of extra holes was in the offing, but surely no one expected the epic battle to follow.
The pair tried three times to close out the win from the 18th, only for them all to end in pars, before they headed to the par-3 17th to try again.
Another stalemate followed, so back to the 18th they went for the fifth extra hole, which led to the same outcome.
They then alternated between the 17th and 18th for four more holes, and Guerrier nearly clinched it on the seventh extra hole when his chip from the rough at the 18th for birdie agonizingly lipped out.
After they both made par again on the eighth extra hole, it was back to the 18th for a record-equalling ninth playoff hole.
It was advantage Guerrier off the tee when he found the fairway before Campillo went left, and after he failed to recover before finishing with a bogey, it was down to Guerrier to make an eight-foot par putt for the title.
In 2005, Julien Guerrier made his debut on the DP World Tour...19 years later, he defeats Jorge Campillo in a nine hole play-off to claim his first title! 👏#EDAM2024 pic.twitter.com/FUf9DDR1m8October 20, 2024
He managed it and the epic 27-hole tussle between the two throughout the day finally had a winner.
