Spain’s Rafael Cabrera Bello seized on a nervy finish by young Englishman Calum Shinkwin to snatch the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open in a play-off at Dundonald Links.
The Ryder Cup player who made an outstanding first appearance for Europe at Hazeltine last year shot a course record 64 in the final round but it needed Shinkwin’s bogey six at the last to get him into sudden death.
The 24-year-old Englishman, who had a nine tournament run with six missed cuts, two disqualifications and a withdrawl earlier this year, had played faultless golf at the front of the field to pull away from fellow overnight leaders Andrew Dodt and Ian Poulter.
However at the last hole needing just a par five to hold off Cabrera Bello’s late charge, he took four to get down from behind a bunker under the grandstand on the left of the green, leaving a five foot putt to win a couple of inches short.
In the play-off Cabrera Bello missed an eagle putt of 20 feet to clinch it, but Shinkwin was in the same difficult spot as he had been just half an hour before and this time left a ten foot birdie putt short to hand the title to the Spaniard.
A final day crowd of around 13,000 stretched the total for the weekend to over 52,000 on the Scottish Open’s first visit to Ayrshire, consikderably up on the disappointing crowds at Castle Stuart last year.