England’s Andrew Johnston held off a final-day charge from tournament host Sergio Garcia to win his first European Tour title in the Spanish Open.
Johnston carded a final round of 70 at Valderrama to finish one over par and a shot ahead of Holland’s Joost Luiten, with Garcia another stroke back following a closing 67.
That was the lowest score of the day as the world number 16 took advantage of the calm and overcast conditions, but the 36-year-old was left to rue missing from 10 feet for an eagle on the 17th and a bogey on the last.
“It’s great, I’m pretty speechless and so happy with the way I played,” Johnston told Sky Sports.
“I drove the ball well all week, chipped and putted pretty well but struggled a bit with my irons the first three days. I just kept going and digging in and found something on the fourth.
“I hit one four iron as a lay-up and hit it straight out the middle and was like ‘Okay, there you go, that’s the feeling,’ and I managed to keep that going the whole way through.”
With overnight leader Michael Lorenzo-Vera quickly dropping down the leaderboard with three bogeys in the first four holes, two-time major winner Martin Kaymer briefly enjoyed a two-shot lead when he holed from five feet for a birdie on the third.
However, playing partner Luiten then birdied the fourth and fifth to get on level terms before Kaymer bogeyed the seventh after a wild drive meant he had to chip out sideways from the trees.
Johnston had dropped a shot on the first but then picked up shots on the seventh and eighth to join Luiten at the top of the leaderboard, before Luiten bogeyed the par-five 11th.
A three-putt bogey on the 14th cost Johnston the outright lead but he responded superbly with a birdie from 20 feet on the 16th which ultimately proved decisive.
Garcia had raced to the turn in 32 and also birdied the 12th, but his hopes seemed to have disappeared when he failed to get up and down from a greenside bunker to bogey the 15th and fall three shots behind with three to play.
However, with his friend and Real Madrid star Gareth Bale looking on, Garcia holed from 30 feet for birdie on the 16th and picked up another shot on the 17th, only to bogey the last after getting a flyer from the rough and seeing his approach sail over the green.
