Burns, Perez, Alker snatch wins; first top five for Purcell

Victor Perez. Picture: Getty

Happiness is a long walk with a putter. Just ask Sam Burns, Victor Perez and Steven Alker as they snatched memorable wins on either side of the Atlantic.

In the Netherlands, Ryan Fox suffered another bitterly disappointing playoff defeat at the hands of an inspired putter when he fell to France's Victor Perez at the fourth extra hole in the Dutch Open at Bernardus Golf.

The Kiwi (35) chipped in for birdie at the 11th, holed from 80 feet for eagle at the 12th and for 45 feet for birdie at the 14th to go three shots clear on 15-under par.

But he made a mess of the 18th, running up a double-bogey seven for a 68 to set the target at 13-under.

Perez birdied the fourth, fifth and eighth, then followed a bogey at the 10th by making a 35 footer at the 17th to draw level. He couldn't birdie the 18th from seven feet to claim outright victory but after signing for a 69, he made amends by holing three huge putts in the playoff to claim his second DP World Tour victory.

After making a 20 footer for birdie in their return to the 18th to stay alive, Perez (29) matched Fox's par-five the second time around, then holed a 30 footer for birdie on their third trip down the last before knocking in a 40 footer at the short 17th for victory.

It brought back memories of the 2018 Irish Open for Fox, who watched Scotland's Russell Knox make a 40 footer on the 72nd green at Ballyliffin to force a playoff, then hole another 40 footer in sudden-death to win.

"There was a fair amount of fortune, I've got to be honest with myself, holing out those long putts in the playoff," said Perez, who also earned a spot at The 150th Open Championship alongside Fox and Meronk, who becomes the first Pole to qualify for The Open.  

On the Challenge Tour, Portmarnock's Conor Purcell closed with a three-under 68 to tie for fifth in the Farmfoods Scottish Challenge at Newmachar.

The former Walker Cup star (24) finished on seven-under, four shots outside a playoff that saw Spain's Javier Sainz beat Jeremy Freiburghaus with a birdie at the second extra hole after he closed with a six-under 66 to the Swiss player's 71.

"I gave myself plenty of chances all day," said Purcell, whose career-first top-10 finish earns him a spot in this week's D+D REAL Czech Challenge.

"I stayed patient when the putts weren't dropping and hung in there, I had an invite for next week, so I can now use the top 10 instead, which is nice.

“I feel very comfortable in my game and know that I'm well able to compete, so it's just a matter of continuing to do what I'm doing and putting myself in these positions as much as I can."

Greystones’ Paul Dunne tied for 49th on three-over after a 71 with Kinsale’s John Murphy tied 65th on eight-over after a 74.

In the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in Michigan, Darren Clarke closed with a three-under 68 to tie for 14th on six-under at Harbor Shores.

He finished 10 shots behind New Zealand’er Alker, who carded the low round of the day, an eight-under 63, to win by three strokes from 54-hole leader Stephen Ames in 16-under.

Alker, 50, said ahead of the final round that he’d need to be aggressive to overcome the four-stroke deficit with which he started the day to have a chance of winning. The New Zealander immediately got to work by making birdie on three of his first five holes. He carded his lone bogey of the day at No. 7 and then put his foot down on the accelerator as he went on to birdie holes No. 8 - 11 to climb to the top of the leaderboard. He added back to back birdies at Nos. 15 and 16 to jump to the outright lead and pull ahead by two with just two holes to play.

Pádraig Harrington struggled to a 74 to finish tied 21st on four-under.

Meanwhile, Burns closed with a five-under 65 to set the clubhouse target at nine-under in the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial.

He had to wait for more than two hours for the leaders to finish but only his close friend and world No 1, Scottie Scheffler could match his total.

While he had chances to win outright, Scheffler could only make two bogeys and 16 pars in a 72 before Burns put him out of his misery by holing a 38 footer from the fringe of the 18th for an unlikely birdie.

Scheffler tried to extend the contest but missed from a similar distance.