ITALY’S RENATO PARATORE missed out on a place in the history books but ensured his name will be etched on the Betfred British Masters trophy with an almost flawless display.
The 23-year-old had been aiming to become the first player to win a European Tour event without making a single bogey since Jesper Parnevik at the 1995 Scandinavian Masters.
But although his brilliant run of error-free golf finally came to an end on his 63rd hole of the week, the par-three ninth, a final round of 68 in testing conditions at Close House saw him finish 18 under par, three shots ahead of Danish teenager Rasmus Hojgaard.
Paratore’s one-shot overnight lead was wiped out by playing partner Justin Harding’s birdie on the third, but the South African then completely mishit his tee shot on the next and came up 30 yards short of the green, from where he was unable to save par.
Paratore had three-putted the short third for par after a lucky bounce from thick rough saw his drive find the green, but he bounced back to hole from 20 feet on the fourth and extend his lead to two shots.
Harding, who finished 12th on his Masters debut at Augusta National last year, swiftly reduced the deficit with a birdie on the fifth, only to miss from two feet to match Paratore’s birdie on the par-five seventh.
Paratore’s first blemish came on the difficult ninth, where tournament host Lee Westwood had earlier run up a quintuple-bogey eight, but he produced the perfect response to birdie the next to briefly move three shots clear.
Another bogey on the 11th gave the chasing pack hope, but they were unable to apply any pressure and Paratore made certain of victory with a birdie on the par-five 17th.
Harding finished alone in third after a closing 72, with the English trio of Andy Sullivan, Robert Rock and Dale Whitnell sharing fourth place on 13 under.
Wicklow’s Paul Dunne finished in a tie for 38th – after finishing on three-under for the tournament, level par for his final round.
Jonathan Caldwell, the 36-year-old from Co Down, came eighth, seven shots behind Paratore.
