Tim Thelen claimed his second Swiss Seniors Open title by one shot after a dramatic final day at Golf Club Bad Ragaz.
The American, who won the 2012 edition of the tournament, was three shots off the pace with three holes to play, but birdied the 17thand 18thholes to finish on ten under par.
He started the day on seven under par and birdied the first hole before dropping a shot on the fifth. He then made a gain on the tenth before shooting par on the next six holes, finishing with a flourish as he made putts from 15 feet to move to the top of the leaderboard.
“I’m ecstatic to win here twice. The way we are treated in Bad Ragaz makes it feel like home,” said Thelen, who recorded his fifth European Senior Tour victory, his first since the Portuguese Open in 2014. “I got on a bit of a roll down the back nine, but missed a couple of short putts on 15 and 16.
“I saw at one stage that Miguel [Angel Martín] was ahead, but unfortunately he bogeyed 17 and parred 18. I then hit two 15 footers for birdie on 17 and 18 to take the lead.
“It’s fantastic to win again, it had been a couple of years. Looking back, I’ve won every other year. My last victory was in 2014 and I won three times in 2012, so this is my year.”
Thelen finished one shot ahead of Englishman Simon P Brown, Spain’s Pedro Linhart, who dropped two shots on 17, and overnight leader Martín.
The 55 year old had previously finished tied 22ndand tied 12that the SSE Enterprise Wales Senior Open and Acorn Jersey Open, and conceded that his putting had let him down in the first two Senior Tour tournaments on European soil.
“I was hitting the ball really well both in Wales and Jersey,” he said. “But my putting was really off. So I went back home to Texas and called up the local professional and asked him to have a look at my putting.
“We spent about half an hour looking at things and he said that it was really off. So we changed my alignment and got it to the standard it should be at – I’ll have to treat him next time I see him!”
Acorn Jersey Open runner-up Gary Wolstenholme finished a shot further back on eight under par alongside Andrew Sherborne and Jamie Spence.
Former Ryder Cup star Paul Broadhurst finished on seven under par with Phil Golding who shot a final round 64, one of the best scores on the final day at Bad Ragaz, Ken Tarling and Esteban Toledo.
