The Porsche Singapore Classic went right down to the wire on Sunday, as Jesper Svensson defeated Kiradech Aphibarnrat at the third playoff hole to pick up his first DP World Tour scalp.
It had been a long, tiring day at Laguna National, with multiple players seeing themselves move into contention throughout the day. However, it was the Swedish Rookie who eventually came out on top, as a stunning nine-under-par final round forced him into a playoff, with a par at the third time of asking giving him the victory.
Beginning the day, David Micheluzzi led the field and, despite starting strongly, a mid-round collapse that saw back-to-back double bogeys dropped him down the leaderboard significantly. In all fairness to Micheluzzi, he did manage to sneak back into the top 10 after a few closing birdies.
That left it up to a number of other players to stake their claim to the title, with one of those being Major winner Shane Lowry. Sitting five-under-par through 11 holes, the former Open champ would drop those five shots coming in, eventually finishing all the way back in a share of 29th place.
Having started well ahead of the pack, both Svensson (63) and Aphibarnrat (64), laid down excellent markers with a nine-under and eight-under-par rounds giving them the clubhouse lead with a few groups remaining.
LIV Golf's Paul Casey, who is playing the event on a Sponsor's Invite, came up just short, finishing at 13-under and outright sixth. Along with Casey, Sam Bairstow had an eagle putt at the last to join the playoff, but the Englishman just missed and finished in third at 16-under.
Heading back up the par 5 18th, all the signs were saying that this was Svennson's to lose, especially when the Swede drove his ball some 60-yards past Aphibarnrat's at the first playoff hole.
However, the Thai player produced an excellent up-and-down to match Svennson at the first and, following pars at the second playoff, we were up the 18th for a third time.
Despite the distance advantage, both men finished in similar spots after their second shots, but it was Aphibarnrat who blinked first as his pitch shot ran over the green and down the steep slope on the other side. Having failed to make his par, Svennson had two putts from short range to pick up the title and his biggest win to date.
PORSCHE SINGAPORE CLASSIC LEADERBOARD
- 1st Svennson (-17* Won at third playoff hole)
- 2nd Aphibarnrat (-17* Lost at third playoff hole)
- 3rd Bairstow (-16)
- 4th Sullivan (-15)
- 5th Pavon (-14)
- 6th Casey (-13)
- T7th Micheluzzi, Sharma, Del Rey, Enoch (-12)
- T11th Ferguson, Nemecz, Winther, Mansell, Luiten (-11)
- T16th Wiesberger, Migliozzi, Helligkilde, Whitnell, Schott (-10)
- T21st Soderberg, J.Smith, Arnaus, Ravetto, Van Driel, Bekker, A.Fitzpatrick, Langasque (-9)
- T29th Lowry, Forsstrom, R.Hojgaard, Scrivener, Law, Nakajima (-8)
- T35th Chantananuwat (A), Jarvis (-7)
- T37th Coussaud, Brun, Veerman, McGreevy, Cockerill, Zanotti (-6)
- T43rd Schwab, Li, C.Hill, Strydom, Girrbach, Wu (-5)
- T49th T.Lewis, Hoshino, Cantero, G.Green, Lombard, Waring, Norgaard (-4)
- T56th Molinari, Morrison, Hanna, Colsaerts (-3)
- T60th Ramsay, Gouveia, Kawamura, Dantorp (-2)
- 64th Schaper (-1)
- T65th Kho, Pavan, Lacroix, Laporta, Lawrence (E)
- T70th Baldwin, Goth-Rasmussen, M.Jordan, Forrest (+1)
- 74th Southgate (+2)
- T75th Kofstad, Kinhult, Gallacher, Hidalgo (+3)
- T79th Celli, R.Fisher (+4)
- 81st Scalise (+5)
