Inspired by Martin Kaymer's wire-to-wire US Open triumph, Finland's Mikko Ilonen followed in his footsteps by claiming his fourth European Tour title in the Irish Open at Fota Island on Sunday.
Ilonen carded a final round of one-under 70 to finish 13 under par, one shot ahead of Italy's Edoardo Molinari, with Sweden's Kristoffer Broberg and English duo Danny Willett and Matthew Baldwin another shot back in third.
Graeme McDowell had been hoping to claim a first professional victory in Ireland in front of the massive crowds in Cork, but struggled on the greens and had to settle for a closing 71 and share of sixth with Magnus A Carlsson, his first top-10 finish in 13 appearances in the event.
Ilonen led from the moment he established a new course record of 64 at lunchtime on Thursday and although the record itself only lasted until Willett, aided by a hole-in-one, shot 63 on Saturday, the Finn took a one-shot lead into the final round.
Birdies on the second and fourth took him three clear of the field until Willett carded his second birdie of the day on the ninth, but that was as close as anyone got until Ilonen dropped his only shot of the day on the last, ironically after hitting an iron off the tee for safety.
“It was very much a Martin Kaymer-inspired win,” the 34-year-old said. “I sent a message to him last week that I really enjoyed watching the US Open. I very rarely enjoy watching it, I would rather play, but Martin’s win inspired me.
“I was thinking about winning this tournament from midday Thursday basically. Somehow the course looked easy to me and I felt we were going to see some crazy scores.
“I had a low one on Thursday to start with, and it was something that I was expecting, but I could see from the faces and comments of other players that they weren’t expecting it.
“I had a number in my head all week that I tried to get to and I missed it by a mile.”
That number was 21 under par and having fallen eight shots short, Ilonen added: “It’s been a hard day’s work to keep that lead and luckily no-one really made a run out of the last couple of groups. I played good enough to make some birdies and I did not have to.”
Victory also takes Ilonen to the verge of a coveted place inside the world’s top 50, which would secure entry into Major championships and WGC events.
Ilonen first came to prominence in Ireland as an amateur when he won the 1999 West of Ireland at Enniscrone.
He went on to win the British Amateur Championship at Hoylake in 2000 and was 16th in the British Open there in 2006, so was understandably excited by the prospect of returning to Royal Liverpool for the Open next month.
He added: “I’ve been thinking about it a lot since I qualified off the Order of Merit last year. I am looking forward to it and hope I can keep this run going. I would like to go in between those big crowds on Sunday, so that means I need to be a little bit better than 16th.”
Molinari, Willett and Baldwin will also be at Hoylake after securing the three available places via the new British Open Qualifying Series, with Baldwin edging out Broberg due to his better world ranking.
McDowell was left to rue a poor putting performance which meant he recorded just one birdie, the former US Open champion also three-putting the fourth for a par five and the 15th for his solitary bogey.
“Perhaps one of the worst putting weekends of my career when in contention,” McDowell said. “I let a lot slip away yesterday and continued in the same vein today.
“So I’m kind of focusing on the big picture this week, looking at the summer and looking at the two Major championships coming up and Ryder Cups and all kinds of fun things to look forward to. My game is in great shape and there are a lot of positives this week.”
Of the other Irish to make the cut, Michael Hoey got to nine under after a fine closing 66 that included six birdies, while Pádraig Harrington (69) and Gareth Maybin (71) both ended up on eight under.
FINAL SCORES FROM FOTA ISLAND
Irish and British unless stated , par 71, (x) denotes amateur)
271 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 64 68 69 70
273 Daniel Willett 73 66 63 71, Kristoffer Broberg (Swe) 69 69 66 69, Matthew Baldwin 67 71 66 69
274 Graeme McDowell 68 66 69 71, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 66 71 68 69, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 67 69 69 69
275 Ross Fisher 68 72 70 65
276 Adam Gee 68 70 69 69, Gareth Maybin 71 65 69 71, Matthew Nixon 70 65 74 67, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 70 69 65 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 66 74 71 65, Simon Khan 69 66 70 71, Pádraig Harrington 69 67 71 69
277 Marco Crespi (Ita) 68 67 73 69, Roope Kakko (Fin) 71 66 72 68, Anders Hansen (Den) 67 70 68 72, Gary Stal (Fra) 70 67 69 71, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 69 70 68 70, Marc Warren 71 70 68 68, Romain Wattel (Fra) 69 65 70 73, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 68 71 67 71
278 Rafael Cabrera Bello (Esp) 72 68 70 68, Oliver Fisher 73 68 66 71, Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 72 69 67 70
279 Sihwan Kim (Nor) 69 67 74 69, Chris Wood 69 69 70 71, Robert Rock 68 66 74 71, Richard Finch 68 72 67 72, Michael Hoey 68 71 70 70, Matthew Fitzpatrick 72 69 70 68
280 Paul Casey 69 69 69 73, Stephen Dodd 73 69 72 66, Ricardo Santos (Por) 71 71 66 72, Peter Lawrie 69 72 70 69, Graeme Storm 69 70 70 71
281 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 68 73 69 71, James Heath 70 72 72 67, Estanislao Goya (Arg) 70 70 70 71, Alejandro Canizares (Esp) 72 68 71 70, Daan Huizing (Ned) 67 71 71 72, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 72 70 70 69
282 Richard Bland 73 68 68 73, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 66 76 72 68, Steve Webster 70 70 70 72, Alvaro Quiros (Esp) 70 70 72 70, Jason Knutzon (USA) 73 69 71 69
283 Anthony Wall 71 71 71 70, David Howell 72 67 73 71, David Horsey 72 69 71 71, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 70 71 75 67, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 68 70 75
284 Jose-Maria Olazabal (Esp) 69 73 73 69, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 71 71 70 72, Stuart Manley 70 68 72 74, Christopher Doak 69 70 73 72
285 Sam Walker 72 68 71 74, Andrew McArthur 71 67 74 73, Darren Clarke 72 68 73 72, John G Kelly 71 71 68 75, Johan Carlsson (Swe) 70 70 72 73
286 Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 70 71 74 71, Jake Roos (Rsa) 68 73 72 73, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 68 74 72 72
287 Hao-Tong Li (Chn) 69 72 69 77, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 71 71 74 71, Francois Calmels (Fra) 73 69 75 70
289 Alastair Forsyth 71 71 72 75
290 Jack Doherty 71 71 74 74, Justin Walters (Rsa) 68 74 74 74
291 Tom Lewis 68 72 76 75
292 Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 69 72 77 74, (x) Gary Hurley 72 66 81 73
299 Mike Miller 73 67 79 80
