Sharvin takes big step towards card with second place in Rolex Trophy
Darius van Driel . Picture: Rolex
Cormac Sharvin took a giant step towards securing his European Tour card when he closed with an eight-under 64 to finish second behind the Netherlands' Darius van Driel in the Rolex Trophy in Geneva.
Van Driel shot the lowest final 36 holes of the 2019 European Challenge Tour season — 63-64 — to win his second Challenge Tour title in 12 months and edge out Sharvin by a shot on 23-under par.
Sharvin made two eagles, 21 birdies and just three bogeys as he followed rounds of 68, 66 and 68 with a 64 to win € 26,000 for his career-best finish and move from ninth to sixth in the standings with the top 15 at the end of the season earning European Tour cards.
Van Driel jumps from 31st in the Challenge Tour Rankings to eighth.
The Dutchman began the final round aiming to chase down overnight leader Ricardo Santos and closed the gap on the Portuguese with a birdie on the fourth hole, as Santos made two bogeys in three holes.
It was van Driel's birdie run around the turn that moved him into contention, making four consecutive gains from the par-three seventh to take a share of the lead.
The 30-year-old continued his assault on the Geneva layout with back-to-back birdies from the 12th before holing out from the fairway for eagle at the par-four 14th to take the lead.
With a four-shot advantage over the field and four holes to play, van Driel stayed calm, even with a dropped shot at the 16th, to sign for a round of 64, confirming himself as the Rolex Trophy winner with a tap-in par at the 72nd hole.
"It feels amazing," he said. "You have no idea how much this win means to me.
"This is huge for me. I came close to winning a couple of times this year but couldn't finish it off. To pull off the win shows me that I can do it.
"I was struggling with the putter on the first two days, then I made a few putts yesterday, and that got me rolling. I'm happy I continued that today.
"I holed my nine iron on 14 for eagle, and that's when I started to look at the leaderboard, which might have been the wrong thing to do.
"I played a little too carefully over the last few holes, and I was happy to close it out in the end, but my lead was four shots at one point. In the end, it came down to one shot, having two putts from six-foot to win, which wasn't what I had in mind after being four ahead.
"I still feel that my game hasn't reached the levels I want it to, so there is still lots of room for improvement, but I really needed this win."
Sharvin shot a final round of 64, finishing birdie-birdie, to claim second place, one stroke behind van Driel.
A group of four players finished two shots further back at 20 under par, including England's Richard Bland, Calum Hill of Scotland, Dutchman Daan Huizing, and Santos, who recorded a disappointing final round of 71, one under par, to share third place.
Rolex Trophy, Golf Club de Genève, Geneva, (Par 72)
265 D Van Driel (Ned) 68 70 63 64
266 C Sharvin (Nir) 68 66 68 64
268 C Hill (Sco) 67 66 68 67, R Santos (Por) 67 66 64 71, D Huizing (Ned) 69 66 67 66, R Bland (Eng) 69 68 65 66
269 N Von Dellingshausen (Ger) 69 62 74 64
271 E Johansen (Nor) 68 68 69 66
272 B Stow (Eng) 66 68 70 68
273 E Ferguson (Sco) 70 69 67 67
274 J Geary (Nzl) 70 71 66 67, B Easton (RSA) 71 64 72 67, A Meronk (Pol) 66 67 71 70
276 U Coussaud (Fra) 73 62 72 69, M Fenasse (Fra) 75 68 67 66, O Farr (Wal) 72 64 70 70, W Besseling (Ned) 73 70 65 68, J Senior (Eng) 68 68 71 69, R Roussel (Fra) 70 73 67 66
277 J Lima (Por) 69 68 70 70
278 R Højgaard (Den) 69 69 71 69, M Schneider (Ger) 72 69 66 71, A Rozner (Fra) 67 70 70 71, R Sciot-Siegrist (Fra) 68 71 68 71, R McGowan (Eng) 70 68 74 66, C Syme (Sco) 71 70 68 69, M Baldwin (Eng) 71 68 66 73
280 S Tiley (Eng) 71 70 70 69, M Simonsen (Den) 66 71 74 69, G Havret (Fra) 70 71 67 72, J Sjöholm (Swe) 74 67 68 71
281 R De Sousa (Sui) 73 71 66 71, M Jordan (Eng) 69 68 71 73
282 S Garcia Rodriguez (Esp) 71 70 68 73, M Haastrup (Den) 72 69 71 70
283 L Scalise (Ita) 70 69 72 72
284 L Van Meijel (Ned) 68 74 69 73
287 F Laporta (Ita) 72 68 72 75
289 R Enoch (Wal) 76 70 75 68
** C Pigem (Esp) 67 69 67 DQ
