Shane Lowry headed for Abu Dhabi with a spring in his step after firing a superb 64 to finish second behind wire-to-wire winner Wade Ormsby in the Hong Kong Open.

Ten years after missing the cut for the second year in a row on his last trip to Hong Kong, the Open champion showed he’s now a far more accomplished player as he began his push for Ryder Cup qualification in hugely positive fashion.

“It’s a golf course I obviously didn’t have much success on in the past but I’m a different player than I was then, and I really enjoyed it this week,” said Lowry, who picked up a welcome haul of Ryder Cup qualifying points, a timely confidence boost ahead of the $7 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship defence this week and a cheque for $110,000.

Scores

“I said to my caddy going down the last, we need to start picking courses that suit me and I think this is one of the courses that suits me.”

A runner-up finish represented the second-best start to a season in Lowry’s 11-year career, bettered only by last year’s hugely significant victory in Abu Dhabi.

Having started the day in a six-way tie for ninth, six shots behind the 39-year old Australian, the Offalyman showed his intent by holing a bunker shot for an opening birdie three.

Ormsby would start with a bogey some 30 minutes later to allow Lowry to cut the gap to four, but the Adelaide native then birdied the next three holes in a row en route to a four-under 66 and a four-shot win over Lowry on 17-under par.

“I’m very happy with myself,” said Lowry, who birdied the fourth, 10th and 12th to move into second place and then eagled the par-five 13th from 18 feet to briefly cut Ormsby’s lead to three.

“Fair play to Wade, he’s run away with it and didn’t really give us a chance but I went out there and did as much as I could. 64 around here is a pretty good score in these conditions.”

Lowry’s slim hopes of victory evaporated with a bogey at the 15th and while he holed a curling putt from 30 feet from the at the 16th to give himself a glimmer of hope, he couldn’t birdie either of the last two holes and Ormsby birdied the 17th to take a comfortable four-shot lead down the 18th. 

“I felt like the pressure was on all week,” Ormsby said after two-putting from long-range for a closing par at the treacherous 18th. “I’m proud of the way I played this week and it’s nice to get 2020 off to a flying start.

“It’s still nerve-racking coming down the stretch you know, like that 18th hole, it can do anything to you but I got the tee-shot in play and hit a weak iron shot into it but anyway. Four on the card and won by four, so I’m very happy.”

Thailand’s Gunn Charoenkul was third on 12-under after a 69 with compatriot Jazz Janewattananond fourth, a shot further back

Lowry played the final round alongside Japan’s Tomoharu Otsuki and world No 16 Tony Finau, who double-bogeyed the 18th to finish fifth on 10-under after a 67.

State of Grace

Meanwhile, South Africa’s Branden Grace (31) closed with a nine-under 62 to overcome compatriot Louis Oosthuizen and win the South African Open hosted by the City of Johannesburg.

The Pretoria native had won all the big professional events hosted in his native country — the Joburg Open and the Volvo Golf Champions in 2012, the 2014 Alfred Dunhill Championship, the 2015 Dimension Data Pro-Am and the Nedbank Golf Challenge in 2017.

Scores

But he was in a class on his own on the final day at Randpark’s Firethorn Course as he came from three strokes behind defending champion Oosthuizen by following an early bogey at the second with eight birdies and an eagle in a brilliant putting display that brought him his first win for 26 months

He finished three clear of Oosthuizen, who aced the eighth in a three-under 68, on 21-under and claimed one of three places in The Open at Royal St George’s in July.

The other Open spots went to England’s Marcus Armitage, who birdied the 18th to finish third on 16-under, and South African Jaco Ahlers (world 217), who tied for fourth on 15-under par and edged out England’s Jack Senior (world 225) for the final spot at Sandwich thanks to his superior world ranking.

It was a disappointing final day for the Irish, however, as Gavin Moynihan and Jonathan Caldwell fell 12 spots to joint 57th on three-under after two-over 73s.

Moynihan was two-under for the day with three holes to play but dropped four shots down the stretch as he double-bogeyed the 16th and bogeyed the last two holes.

Caldwell also struggled home in 39 on the back nine having bounced back from a double-bogey six at the second with birdies at the fourth, sixth and ninth.