Mikael Lindberg secured his first DP World Tour title – and qualified for the PGA Championship – with a two-shot victory at the Turkish Airlines Open.
The Swede, making his 70th start on the DP World Tour, held off playing partner Daniel Rodrigues with a final round of 69, to add to earlier rounds of 66, 73 and 70, to finish on ten under par at National Golf Club in Belek.
The 33-year-old’s victory sees him top the Asian Swing rankings and subsequently earn his Major Championship debut at the PGA Championship in two weeks’ time. He will be joined at Aronimink Golf Club by Austrian Bernd Wiesberger and American Jordan Gumberg who finished second and third on the rankings respectively.
Lindberg and Rodrigues both started with birdies at the first hole, though the Swede gave the shot back at the third. He responded with three birdies in the next four holes to move one ahead of Rodrigues, who had also birdied the fourth.
Both players bogeyed the ninth before Lindberg stretched his lead to two with a birdie at the 13th – and momentarily to three with another at the next, until Rodrigues responded in kind.
The clubhouse target had by now been set at seven under, initially by Jacob Skov Olesen before he was joined by Darius van Driel and Ewen Ferguson. With the trio sitting four back from the on-course lead though, it came down to a battle between Lindberg, Rodrigues and Guido Migliozzi, with the Italian eight under and three behind Lindberg with three to play.
The leader bogeyed the 15th, allowing Rodrigues to halve the deficit while Migliozzi made a good up-and-down for par at the 16th. Rodrigues was unable to get up and down from a bunker at the 16th, leaving Lindberg two shots ahead once more.
Migliozzi was unable to find a birdie over the final two holes, the Italian improving the clubhouse target slightly to eight under but visibly frustrated not to increase the pressure on Lindberg.
Rodrigues’ long birdie putt at the last slid just by the right of the hole, leaving Lindberg three putts to win it and though he left the first well short, the second safely found the heart of the hole to leave him emotional on the green.
Rodrigues and Migliozzi shared second place on eight under ahead of Ferguson, Van Driel and Olesen.
Lindberg, who turned pro in 2013 and graduated from Nordic Tour League to the Challenge Tour in 2020, before earning his DP World Tour card in 2023, said: “I’ve been dreaming about this moment for so many years, so to able to pull off this win, playing from the front in such tough conditions, is very satisfying. I was in the lead after the first round and it’s been mentally very tough being in front for so long.”
Speaking about the bonus of earning his first start at a major championship at next week’s PGA Championship, he added: “To be honest, I barely knew it was even possible to get into the PGA Championship because I saw the guys that were leading the Asian Swing were quite far ahead of me. I don’t know what to say really, but it’s going to be amazing.”
Read the full article here