As the Turkish Airlines Open came to its conclusion, what were the key storylines of the week and the final day’s play?
With seven shots separating Thorbjorn Olesen and the chasing pack heading into Sunday at the Turkish Airlines Open, the final round was set up for great suspense.
In spite of that, as you can always expect on the European Tour, a couple of contenders emerged to put it up to the runaway leader and when all was said and done, the outcome of the tournament wasn’t as clear cut as it once appeared it could be.
Olesen did what he had to do to get over the line, but he showed enough inconsistencies in his own play to at least make it interesting for a little while.
Away from the outcome of this week’s trophy, there was plenty to play for further down the field too.
With players continuing to jostle for positions in the overall Race to Dubai to qualify for even bigger pay days, there was plenty of meaningful golf being played around the course.
What were the key takeaways from the final day’s play at the Regnum Carya Golf and Spa Resort though? Let’s take a closer look.
Olesen Closing The Deal
Once thought to be one of Europe’s brightest rising stars, Thorbjorn Olesen hasn’t quite lived up to that billing in recent years thanks to a combination of inconsistent form, health and injury problems.
It’s a testament to his talent that in spite of those difficulties, when he closed out the Turkish Airlines Open on Sunday, he picked up his fourth win on tour by the age of 26.
Olesen has now won in the October/November section of the season for three straight years, and looks increasingly comfortable when he finds himself in position to win. Now the challenge becomes finding a way to pick up multiple wins in a year, and really kicking on.
Spirited Final Day Challenges
With Olesen holding a seven-stroke advantage heading into the final 18 holes, the outcome of the tournament seemed like something of a foregone conclusion, but to the credit of the chasing pack they did their best to make it interesting.
Li Haotong and David Horsey both fired closing rounds of 65 to finish only three back of Olesen’s finishing total of 20-under-par.
As Olesen started to spray his driver either side of the fairways on the back nine, Haotong and Horsey kept pressing and were ultimately rewarded with a sizeable pay day for their efforts.
Mandatory Credit: Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports
Coetzee Thwarted By One Bad Round
While a three shot win was ultimately a pretty comfortable one for Thorbjorn Olesen, the man who probably had the best chance of matching his play throughout the week was made to pay for a costly stumble on Friday.
South Africa’s George Coetzee set the course ablaze en route to an opening round score of 64, but having only followed that up with a 73 the next day then lost considerable ground on the leaderboard.
With rounds of 66 and 67 closing the tournament for Coetzee at the weekend, the evidence suggest that he played just as well as anyone in bursts this week and he’ll leave Turkey ruing a poor showing on day two.
Turkish Airlines Open – Day 4 Leaderboard
1 – Thorbjorn Olesen – 69 (-20)
T2 – David Horsey – 65 (-17)
T2 – Haotong Li – 65 (-17)
4 – Bernd Wiesberger – 67 (-15)
5 – George Coetzee – 67 (-14)
T6 – David Lipsky – 69 (-13)
T6 – Joakim Lagergen – 67 (-13)
8 – Pablo Larrazabal – 68 (-12)
9 – Nacho Elvira – 67 (-11)
The European Tour will be back in action on Thursday as the men at the top of the Race to Dubai leaderboard return for the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
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