Asian Tour, European TourEuropean TourISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth, James Nitties, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Lucas Herbert, Sam Horsfield

Aphibarnrat beats Nitties to claim ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth

Asian Tour, European TourEuropean TourISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth, James Nitties, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Lucas Herbert, Sam Horsfield
Aphibarnrat beats Nitties to claim ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth
Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat holds the trophy following his win over Australia's James Nitties in the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth at Lake Karrinyup Country Club. Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images

Thailand's Kiradech Aphibarnrat holds the trophy following his win over Australia's James Nitties in the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth at Lake Karrinyup Country Club. Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images

Kiradech Aphibarnrat's decision to cancel a holiday in the Maldives paid off as he beat Australia's James Nitties 2 and 1 in the final of the ISPS HANDA World Super 6 Perth to claim his fourth European Tour title.

The Thai only entered this event seven days ago on an invite and arrived having not played any practice rounds at Karrinyup Country Club.

He needed four trips up the 18th in a play-off on Saturday night to claim the last of the 24 spots in the Super 6 and then had to come through five rounds of match play and 35 holes on Sunday.

After wins over Ben Eccles, Yusaku Miyazato, American Sean Crocker and Australian Lucas Herbert, he produced one final push to beat Australian Nitties and move back into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.

The victory is the 28-year-old's second in a match play event after his win at the 2015 Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play and now moves him to tenth position in the Race to Dubai Rankings presented by Rolex.

After 54 holes of stroke play, the players were facing off against each other over the tenth, 11th, 13th, 14th, 12th and 18th, with the 90-yard shootout hole used to separate those still all square.

Nitties had defeated Nick Cullen, Dimitrios Papadatos, Callan O'Reilly and Sam Horsfield en route to the final, with Englishman Horsfield finishing fourth after losing 3 and 1 to Herbert in the play-off for third and fourth position.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat

"It's just been an awesome week. I don't know how to explain but I'm so happy.

"I'm working so hard. The last few months I've been getting really close and finally I've done it. It means a lot. When you focus on something, you try this hard, then I kept finishing second and then I'm not giving up. I'm trying so hard until I get it.

"It's really tough to get in the last 24. It's been tough every single match that I play in.James is playing so good but he's just unlucky at the end."

James Nitties

"It's a sad way to go down considering another win might have got me some playing rights somewhere in the world because I currently have no status but it was a great week.

"Considering I was a four-footer away from losing the first match, it was pretty positive stuff getting to the finals.

"It's just absolutely fantastic. The weather's perfect, it's beach views every day most of the time. I couldn't complain at all. It's a fun week and I love this tournament." 

Lucas Herbert

“It was a great experience seeing how he (Aphibarnrat) hits it and how he gets it around, how he goes about things - top 50 player in the world - so whenever you get a chance to do that, it's always a really good learning curve.  

“Today it was almost tough playing him in match play because he's such a good guy. He's obviously had some really nice things to say about me earlier in the week, too. It was almost tough trying to think of him as an enemy and beat him but really enjoyed the experience, and unfortunately just didn't quite get it over the line there at the finish, but gave myself a really good chance."

ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth, Lake Karrinyup CC (Par 72)

Final

  1. Kiradech APHIBARNRAT (THA) bt James NITTIES (AUS) 2&1

Third-place playoff

  1. Lucas HERBERT (AUS) bt Sam Horsfield (ENG) 3&1

Semi-finals

  1. James NITTIES (AUS) bt Sam HORSFIELD (ENG) 2&1
  2. Kiradech APHIBARNRAT (THA) bt Lucas HERBERT (AUS) 1SH

Quarter-finals

  1. Sam HORSFIELD (ENG) bt Min Woo LEE (a) (AUS) 3&2
  2. James NITTIES (AUS) bt Callan O’REILLY (AUS) 1UP
  3. Lucas HERBERT (AUS) bt Brad Kennedy (AUS) 2SH
  4. Kiradech APHIBARNRAT (THA) bt Sean CROCKER (USA) 1 up

Round Two

  1. Min Woo LEE (a) (AUS) bt Prom MEESAWAT (THA) 2UP
  2. Sam HORSFIELD (ENG) bt Matthew MILLAR (AUS) 4SH
  3. Callan O’REILLY (AUS) bt Thorbjørn OLESEN (DEN) 1UP
  4. James NITTIES (AUS) bt Dimitrios PAPADATOS (AUS)1UP
  5. Lucas HERBERT (AUS) bt Marcus FRASER (AUS) 1UP
  6. Brad KENNEDY (AUS) bt Yikeun CHANG (KOR) 1 SH
  7. Kiradech APHIBARNRAT (THA) bt Yusaku MIYAZATO (JPN) 5SH
  8. Sean CROCKER (USA) bt Andrea PAVAN (ITA) 1SH

Round One

  1. Min Woo LEE (a) (AUS) bt vs Satoshi KODAIRA (JPN) 2/1
  2. Matthew MILLAR (AUS) bt Grant FORREST (SCO) 1 up
  3. Callan O’REILLY (AUS) bt Pavit TANGKAMOLPRASERT (THA) 2/1
  4. James NITTIES (AUS) bt Nick CULLEN (AUS) 1SH
  5. Marcus FRASER (AUS) bt Poom SAKSANSIN (THA) 6 SH
  6. Yikeun CHANG (KOR) bt Zander LOMBARD (RSA) 3/2
  7. Kiradech APHIBARNRAT (THA) bt Ben ECCLES (AUS) 1UP
  8. Andrea PAVAN (ITA) bt Stephen LEANEY (AUS) 2SH

Final Scores - 24 qualifiers in finishing order

211 K Aphibarnrat (Tha) 67 72 72,

210 J Nitties (Aus) 66 76 68,

206 L Herbert (Aus) 68 69 69,

208 S Horsfield (Eng) 68 72 68,

206 S Crocker (USA) 70 69 67,

208 B Kennedy (Aus) 69 72 67,

211 C O’Reilly (Aus) 72 71 68, 

210 M Lee (am) (Aus) 69 70 71,

204 P Meesawat (Tha) 67 70 67,

206 T Olesen (Den) 70 67 69,

208 D Papadatos (Aus) 69 73 66, Y Miyazato (Jpn) 70 70 68, 

209 M Fraser (Aus) 68 74 67,

210 M Millar (Aus) 73 70 67,

211 Y Chang (Kor) 67 73 71, A Pavan (Ita) 73 66 72,

209 G Forrest (Sco) 69 68 72,

210 B Eccles (Aus) 72 69 69, P Tangkamolprasert (Tha) 70 71 69, N Cullen (Aus) 72 68 70, 

211 P Saksansin (Tha) 71 73 67, S Kodaira (Jpn) 70 71 70, S Leaney (Aus) 69 72 70, Z Lombard (RSA) 68 70 73, A Quayle (Aus) 71 68 72, 


Non-qualifiers

212 R Fox (Nzl) 70 73 69, W Ormsby (Aus) 67 73 72, J Scrivener (Aus) 67 73 72, J Edfors (Swe) 71 73 68, D Bransdon (Aus) 71 70 71, S Vincent (Zim) 73 71 68, A Rai (Eng) 71 73 68,

213 R Allenby (Aus) 72 72 69, J Guerrier (Fra) 74 67 72, S Yongcharoenchai (Tha) 71 71 71, M Schwab (Aut) 71 72 70, N Fung (Mas) 67 76 70, J McLeod (Aus) 72 70 71, R Evans (Eng) 70 74 69,

214 T Pilkadaris (Aus) 71 72 71, L Westwood (Eng) 66 70 78, D Kataoka (Jpn) 67 75 72, J Janewattananond (Tha) 68 74 72, P Angles (Esp) 71 73 70, C Crawford (Aus) 73 70 71, R Green (Aus) 69 73 72, S Gros (Fra) 67 77 70, B Rumford (Aus) 64 72 78,

215 J Todd (USA) 73 71 71, S Brown (Eng) 72 70 73, G Paddison (Nzl) 67 76 72, J Wilson (Aus) 73 67 75, J Zunic (Aus) 72 71 72, L Canter (Eng) 72 72 71, C Mivis (Bel) 71 73 71, J Higginbottom (Aus) 74 70 71, J Marchesani (Aus) 73 71 71,

216 A Blyth (Aus) 73 66 77, C Koepka (USA) 70 74 72, J Felton (Aus) 69 74 73, R Wannasrichan (Tha) 72 70 74, M Griffin (Aus) 70 72 74, S Han (USA) 68 73 75, P Fowler (Aus) 74 70 72,

217 C Ford (Eng) 69 73 75, H Tanihara (Jpn) 74 70 73, D Fox (Aus) 69 72 76, R Cho (Kor) 73 71 73, A Knappe (Ger) 75 68 74, J Girrbach (Sui) 72 72 73, A Dodt (Aus) 71 73 73, J Fahrbring (Swe) 68 74 75,

218 T Sinnott (Aus) 72 72 74, J Dantorp (Swe) 71 73 74, A Price (Aus) 72 72 74, A Bland (Aus) 73 70 75,

219 B Neil (Sco) 71 73 75, D Lipsky (USA) 68 76 75,

220 M Foster (Eng) 71 72 77,

221 A Connelly (Can) 69 74 78, 

CUT

145 S Jeffress (Aus) 71 74, T Macdonald (Aus) 69 76, V Perez (Fra) 74 71, J Kruger (RSA) 72 73, M Guyatt (Aus) 72 73, A Da Silva (Bra) 71 74, P Peterson (USA) 74 71, M Brown (Nzl) 69 76, B Ritthammer (Ger) 71 74

146 M Stieger (Aus) 76 70, G Bhullar (Ind) 71 75, S Fernandez (Esp) 72 74, M Hendry (Nzl) 71 75, J Veerman (USA) 72 74, T Lewis (Eng) 73 73, B Coletta (Aus) 73 73, P Lonard (Aus) 72 74, M Armitage (Eng) 74 72, T Kaewsiribandit (Tha) 71 75, T Murray (Eng) 71 75, D Stewart (Sco) 74 72, A Sandhu (Ind) 73 73, A Saddier (Fra) 73 73, L Gagli (Ita) 71 75,

147 S Hawkes (Aus) 75 72, D Boonma (Tha) 73 74, C Syme (Sco) 76 71, A Vongvanij (Tha) 72 75, D Pearce (Nzl) 75 72, S Heisele (Ger) 75 72, J Geary (Nzl) 74 73, B Henson (USA) 74 73,

148 G Stal (Fra) 73 75, C Bezuidenhout (RSA) 73 75, C Blomstrand (Swe) 75 73, N Geyger (Chi) 73 75, J Younger (Aus) 74 74, B Evans (Eng) 75 73,

149 A Johnston (Eng) 73 76, M Schneider (Ger) 77 72, S Kapur (Ind) 75 74, M Nixon (Eng) 71 78, D Smail (Nzl) 77 72, B Rankin (Aus) 79 70, J Colomo (Esp) 72 77, D Nisbet (Aus) 73 76, N Kimsey (Eng) 75 74, A Townsend (Aus) 75 74, R McEvoy (Eng) 73 76,

150 J Thomson (Eng) 75 75, G Moynihan (Irl) 73 77, G Porteous (Eng) 74 76, N O’Hern (Aus) 76 74, N Srithong (Tha) 70 80, A Meronk (Pol) 75 75, A Cañizares (Esp) 73 77,

151 P O’Malley (Aus) 76 75, B Campbell (Nzl) 73 78, M Baldwin (Eng) 74 77, J Heath (Eng) 79 72, D Willett (Eng) 76 75, J Norris (Aus) 74 77, L Yanwei (Chn) 81 70,

152 D Brandt-Richards (Aus) 73 79, D Beck (Aus) 71 81, D Lawson (Aus) 71 81, M Long (Nzl) 79 73, P Widegren (Swe) 73 79, D Jordan (Aus) 72 80, P Wilson (Aus) 73 79, S Yates (Sco) 79 73, F Aguilar (Chi) 73 79,

154 T Smyth (Aus) 80 74,

156 B Leong (Mas) 77 79, N Holman (Aus) 79 77,

WD S Rahman (Ban) 80 WD.