Birdie Blitz from Howie Clinches Top Five Finish

Craig Howie had the Peebles golfing public on the edge of their seats on Sunday afternoon as he challenged at the top of the European Tour leaderboard with a rousing final round 65 at the ISPS Handa UK Championship at The Belfry.

Playing in just his fifth start on the main Tour, Howie produced a bogey-free display with no fewer than seven birdies at the Ryder Cup venue on Sunday afternoon, grabbing a share of fifth place just two shots back from eventual winner, Rasmus Hojgaard, and the leading Scot in the field.

Having celebrated his 26th birthday on Thursday with an excellent opening round 68 to leave him inside the top-10, he consolidated that with a level par 72 on Friday, before moving up the leaderboard with fighting 71 in difficult conditions on the Saturday.

“That was a brilliant last round. I went out there not expecting a lot and just went out there to have a bit of fun and to shoot a 65 was pretty pleasing. It’s the first time I’ve been in contention on the European Tour, so it made for an exciting day.”

Starting the final round in a share of 11th place, he signalled his intentions with back-to-back birdies on the 2nd and 3rd holes and charged into contention with a further birdie at the 8th. Two more birdies came at the 10th and 12th holes, with the Sky Sports cameras finally showing a keen interest in the young Scot. His sixth birdie of the day came at the par-five 15th hole and the excitement levels hit fever pitch as his superb eagle attempt at the 17th came up just an inch short with a tap in birdie moving Howie into a four-way share of the lead.

After his tee shot found the rough at the famous 18th hole – best remembered for Sam Torrance’s winning putt at the 1985 Ryder Cup – Howie produced a superb mid iron approach to set up another birdie chance to go to 13-under and into the outright lead. Somehow his 15-foot putt just slipped past as he settled for par, and he was eventually overtaken by Hojgaard and overnight leader Justin Walters, as well as Scottish Open champion Bernd Wiesberger and two-time Major winner Martin Kaymer, who narrowly missed out on a play-off spot.

The result was Craig’s best performance in his three years as a professional, moving him up 53 places to 120th in the Race to Dubai rankings and giving a great opportunity of gaining his full European Tour card for next season. He’s also now inside the top 500 of the world golf rankings, and gains entry to this week’s Andalucia Masters, which takes place at another Ryder Cup venue, Valderamma.

Howie said: “That was a brilliant last round. I went out there not expecting a lot and just went out there to have a bit of fun and to shoot a 65 was pretty pleasing. It’s the first time I’ve been in contention on the European Tour, so it made for an exciting day.

“I haven’t really played a lot given the quarantine period and also being a Challenge Tour player, there hasn’t been that many events. So, to have some time on the golf course of late has been much appreciated.

“The course was still playing quite tricky on the final day and it’s tough to get a good score but then after a few early birdies, I managed to play a good back nine and now that I have finished top-10 I also get to play this week in Spain.”

Earlier in the week, younger brother Darren enjoyed a good performance at the British Amateur Championship, being held at Royal Birkdale, qualifying for the match-play stages and reaching the third round with a superb one-hole victory over Englishman Harvey Byers, eventually losing out at the last-32 stage.