Branden Grace wins and closes on his ‘top 10 goal’

South Africa’s Branden Grace admitted it was a dream come true after becoming the first player to successfully defend the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters on Saturday.

Grace began the final round two shots behind former Open champion Paul Lawrie, who was seeking his third victory at Doha and had won on six of the seven occasions when he held the 54-hole lead. However, while Lawrie slumped to a closing 78, Grace carded four birdies and one bogey in a closing 69 to finish 14 under par, two shots ahead of Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen and Spain’s Rafael Cabrera-Bello.

“It’s great. I’m pretty much at a loss for words,” Grace said after securing his seventh European Tour title since 2012. “It’s a big thing to come to a week defending. You’ve got a lot more pressure and a lot more things going on that week.

“But to get the first proper defence under the belt is something great, something I’ve been dreaming of. There’s no better place to do it than Qatar. This was really one of my biggest wins to date last year and set me up for a great 2015. Hopefully I can do the same again.”

Grace remain 11th in the world rankings despite his win, but has closed to within 0.1 points of 10th place after a superb display in the windy conditions, dropping just one shot in the last 36 holes.

“I’m knocking, I’m very close,” added the 27-year-old, who finished third in the US PGA Championship and fourth in the US Open last year, as well as recording a perfect 5-0 record in the Presidents Cup.

“Winning tournaments is the priority. If you can take care of tournaments and try to win or finish at the top, you’ll move up in the world rankings eventually.

“Top 10 has been a long-time goal for me so if I can get in there, then that’s great. I believe it’s going to happen, whether it’s maybe after this week or after the next tournament I play.

“I’ve given myself the chance of getting that and I feel that the type of golf that I’m playing at the moment, that it’s not far off.”