Jonathan Caldwell claimed a valuable tied-eighth finish at the British Masters on Saturday while Italy’s Renato Paratore missed out on a place in the history books but ensured his name will be etched on the trophy with an almost flawless display.
The 23-year-old had been aiming to become the first player to win a European Tour event without making a single bogey since Jesper Parnevik at the 1995 Scandinavian Masters.
But although his brilliant run of error-free golf finally came to an end on his 63rd hole of the week, the par-three ninth, a final round of 68 in testing conditions at Close House saw him finish 18 under par, three shots ahead of Danish teenager Rasmus Hojgaard.
For Caldwell it was a battling final round of 70 that saw him claim his biggest ever cheque as he pocketed €27,420 on a tough blustery day outside Newcastle.
The 36-year-old from Bangor made a double bogey at the sixth to slip back but responded with straight away with consecutive birdies at the seventh and eighth.
A bogey would follow at the ninth but again he answered back by making birdie at the 10th and closing with a final birdie at the 17th to sign for a solid round given the conditions.
Paul Dunne’s closing round of 71 saw him finish in a tie for 38th at three under.
At the top of the leaderboard, Paratore’s one-shot overnight lead was wiped out by playing partner Justin Harding’s birdie on the third, but the South African then completely mishit his tee shot on the next and came up 30 yards short of the green, from where he was unable to save par.
Paratore had three-putted the short third for par after a lucky bounce from thick rough saw his drive find the green, but he bounced back to hole from 20 feet on the fourth and extend his lead to two shots.
Harding, who finished 12th on his Masters debut at Augusta National last year, swiftly reduced the deficit with a birdie on the fifth, only to miss from two feet to match Paratore’s birdie on the par-five seventh.
Paratore’s first blemish came on the difficult ninth, where tournament host Lee Westwood had earlier run up a quintuple-bogey eight, but he produced the perfect response to birdie the next to briefly move three shots clear.
Another bogey on the 11th gave the chasing pack hope, but they were unable to apply any pressure and Paratore made certain of victory with a birdie on the par-five 17th.
Harding finished alone in third after a closing 72, with the English trio of Andy Sullivan, Robert Rock and Dale Whitnell sharing fourth place on 13 under.
Collated final scores & totals in the European Tour British Masters hosted by Lee Westwood, Close House GC, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 71):
266 Renato Paratore (Ita) 65 66 66 69
269 Rasmus Hojgaard (Den) 66 67 66 70
270 Justin Harding (Rsa) 69 63 66 72
271 Robert Rock 69 66 67 69, Andy Sullivan 68 69 67 67, Dale Whitnell 68 64 68 71
272 Oliver Fisher 65 69 70 68
273 Ryan Fox (Nzl) 67 67 71 68, Jonathan Caldwell (NIrl) 67 69 67 70
274 Ben Stow 67 68 68 71, Jens Fahrbring (Swe) 68 69 68 69, Sam Horsfield 70 70 61 73, Graeme Storm 71 69 67 67
275 Jeff Winther (Den) 70 67 72 66, David Horsey 70 69 68 68, Ashley Chesters 67 66 68 74
276 Matthew Jordan 68 68 69 71, Clement Sordet (Fra) 69 67 71 69, Jack Singh Brar 67 70 72 67, Johannes Veerman (USA) 69 71 67 69
277 Robin Roussel (Fra) 69 68 69 71, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 69 68 66 74, Jack Senior 71 70 63 73, Aaron Rai 69 70 66 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 67 71 69 70
278 Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 71 69 70 68, Calum Hill 67 66 72 73, Rikard Karlberg (Swe) 69 70 66 73
279 Jason Scrivener (Aus) 70 69 71 69, Laurie Canter 70 68 69 72, Toby Tree 69 67 74 69, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 71 69 70 69, Nacho Elvira (Spa) 71 68 70 70, Daan Huizing (Ned) 73 67 71 68
280 Jordan Smith 69 69 67 75, Adrian Otaegui (Spa) 73 65 68 74, Matthew Southgate 70 70 70 70
281 Richard Bland 69 70 66 76, David Law 64 69 76 72, Marcus Kinhult (Swe) 69 69 74 69, Richie Ramsay 69 71 70 71, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 72 69 69 71, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 69 72 69 71, Paul Dunne 71 70 69 71 (Irl), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 68 71 68 74, Gregory Havret (Fra) 70 68 69 74
282 Joachim B. Hansen (Den) 70 70 77 65, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 68 72 69 73, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 66 69 70 77, Benjamin Poke (Den) 70 68 71 73, Eddie Pepperell 67 69 69 77, Scott Jamieson 70 69 68 75
283 Niklas Lemke (Swe) 70 70 69 74, Dave Coupland 70 71 70 72, Romain Langasque (Fra) 70 71 69 73, Aaron Cockerill (Can) 66 71 73 73, Lars Van Meijel (Ned) 69 68 69 77, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 69 69 71 74, Lee Slattery 66 74 74 69
285 Adri Arnaus (Spa) 70 69 69 77, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 71 70 66 78, Antoine Rozner (Fra) 72 67 71 75, Sean Crocker (USA) 67 74 69 75, Scott Vincent (Zim) 69 72 68 76
286 Garrick Porteous 65 71 70 80, Grant Forrest 70 71 71 74
287 Jake McLeod (Aus) 69 70 71 77
289 Brandon Stone (Rsa) 71 70 79 69
290 Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 71 69 70 80
292 Lee Westwood 70 71 72 79
