Emotional first tour win for Tunnicliff

Even in a tournament lacking a single member of the world’s top 100 the Great North Open came up with a shock winner at Slaley Hall today.

Miles Tunnicliff, who last November finished 137th out of 168 at the European qualifying school, captured the £100,000 (€154,000) first prize in fairytale fashion.

The 33-year-old Marbella-based Englishman, who had never previously finished higher than sixth and has not held a tour card for three years, shot a best-of-the-day closing round of 69 for a nine-under-par total of 279.

He finished four strokes ahead of German Sven Struver - and now has a place on the £60m (€93m) circuit for the rest of this season and two more.

There was real emotion attached to his victory. Two weeks ago, just before she died of cancer, his mother told him to go out and win a tournament.

‘‘It’s very, very hard to speak right now,’’ he said. ‘‘She gave me the strength and inspiration to do what I did today.

‘‘My concentration was very good. I tried to stay within myself and didn’t look at the leaderboards until the 12th.’’ He was three ahead by then.

Tunnicliff was playing only his second tour event of the season and his fourth in two years - and until last week he had not touched his clubs for a month.

‘‘I had a wrist operation two years ago and last year I almost felt like packing it in. But I plugged away and here I am.’’

There did indeed appear to be a touch of destiny attached to his performance.

Twice on the front nine he chipped in for birdies and even when he was four clear of the field with three to play he narrowly escaped hooking into the trees on the 16th and holed a 20-foot putt for his par.

He was in trouble at the last as well, but saved par again from 12 feet.

The previous biggest cheque of Tunnicliff’s career was £16,830 (€26,000) for eighth place in the 1997 Scandinavian Masters.

Welshman Bradley Dredge and Sheffield’s Malcolm Mackenzie shared third place.

Struver was trying for his first win in four years and was joint leader with a round to play, but went to the turn in 39 and after birdies at the next two ran up a six on the long 12th.

‘‘I couldn’t get close enough to put any real pressure on him,’’ he said.

Former Ryder Cup player David Gilford also shared top spot overnight, but managed only a 78.

A month ago Mackenzie won the French Open for his first success on the European tour in 509 attempts and when he moved into second place with five to play there was still a chance of the 40-year-old triumphing again.

But he bogeyed the short 14th and missed birdie putts of four feet at the next and six feet on the last.

‘‘It’s nice to know that I can still get into contention,’’ commented Mackenzie. ‘‘I didn’t look at any leaderboards until the last and didn’t know how I was doing.’’

Dredge, who fell from joint leader to fourth last year with a double-bogey six at the last, was delighted with his finish this time.

The 28-year-old from Tredegar’s 70 was the second best score of the final round.

‘‘I seem to play well round here for some reason,’’ said Dredge. ‘‘There’s a bit of what could have been, but I’m really pleased with that because I really struggled in the third round.’’