Goosen claims title despite last hole hiccup

RETIEF GOOSEN admitted he had ridden his luck after surviving a last hole stumble to claim his second victory in the space of a week in the Linde German Masters.

Goosen held a two-shot lead playing the 18th but drove into the water to the left of the fairway and missed from four feet to save his par after a superb recovery.

Overnight joint leaders Nick Dougherty and Henrik Stenson needed to birdie the last to force a play-off but were unable to take advantage of Goosen’s slip-up.

The world number five’s closing 67 gave him a 20-under-par total of 268 and one-shot victory over Dougherty, Stenson, Jose Maria Olazabal and David Lynn.

David Howell was a shot further back in sixth after a 66, one ahead of Paul Casey and Anthony Wall.

Goosen began the day sharing the lead on 15 under par but quickly found trouble on the par four second. After driving into trees and taking a penalty drop, the South African compounded his error with three putts to run up a double bogey six.

“I told myself the good thing is that it’s still early in the round, we still have 16 holes left to play and I got on a good run from there on,” said Goosen, who duly fired four birdies in the next five holes.

“After I made a couple of birdies on the front nine I started getting comfortable again on the greens, I read them perfectly today and putted well all week.”

The 36-year-old birdied the 10th from five feet to draw level with Wall and another birdie on the 12th took him into the lead for the first time.

The leading pair traded birdies on the 13th and 15th before Wall crucially bogeyed the 16th - the first of three dropped shots in a row - missing the green with his tee shot and failing to get up and down for par.

That gave Goosen a two-shot cushion and it was just as well.

“As soon as I hit the drive on 18 I knew it was in the drink,” said Goosen, who won the Volkswagen Masters in Beijing last week.

“I’ve struggled all week trying to hit that fairway, and struggled with my driving, but I managed to drop it in a good place and hit a solid nine iron in. I just hit the putt too hard. It was a little bit of an unfortunate finish and lucky we got away with it.”

The victory was Goosen’s 12th on the European Tour and third of the season, the winner’s cheque of £340,000 also taking him top of the Order of Merit and into pole position for a third money list title.

“I’m definitely going to try,” added Goosen, who won it in 2001 and 2002. “Next week with the World Match Play - the first prize at Wentworth is £1million - is very important and so is the American Express championship in San Francisco.”