Emerson toasts first European Tour win

Gary Emerson celebrated the first European Tour win of his 10-year career after overcoming a marathon final day to claim the BMW Russian Open title.

Heavy rain had forced most of yesterday’s play to be abandoned and Emerson returned to the saturated Le Meridien Moscow Country Club this morning facing the prospect of 35 holes in the day.

The 40-year-old was one of the oldest in the field but it did not show as he carded back-to-back 68s to win by two strokes from Austria’s Markus Brier.

“It feels marvellous. Fantastic,” said the English golfer.

“It has been a tough week weather-wise but we’ve had a great week so it feels tremendous. I actually felt surprisingly good for someone of my age. The adrenalin keeps you going over the last nine holes of the last round.”

Of greater significance than the €67,800 winner’s cheque was the European Tour exemption for the rest of this year and next (he does not get the full two-year exemption as the Russian Open was a ‘dual-badged’ event between the two tours).

Emerson has split his time this season between the two tours but today’s win lifted him to 105 in the Volvo Order of Merit.

“The first win is obviously a massive win. I lost my card last year so I lost my full playing privileges so this is massive for me,” Emerson added.

His morning 68, after resuming his third round more than 19 hours after he has started it, lifted him into a tie for the lead with Germany’s Kariem Baraka, who had been at the top for all three rounds.

However, as the nephew of Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer stumbled in his final round, Emerson seized his chance.

Birdies on the first two holes set him up for the rest of the round and he played his way through a further eight holes in regulation before he dropped his only shot of the round at the short 11th.

He overshot the green off the tee and then took a free drop after his ball landed in occasional water. He flopped out to 15 feet but could not convert the putt and dropped to 13 under to lead by just one.

A 15-foot birdie putt shaved the hole at the next before he clawed back his dropped shot at the par-four 14th with a successful putt from inside 20 feet.

He followed that with another at the short 16th after landing his tee shot within 12 feet of the flag.

Emerson pitched his third on the par-five 17th to within six feet but before he could finish it off he glanced over at the leaderboard to see Brier had just birdied 16 to move within a shot again.

With the pressure on Emerson rolled in the short putt to restore his two-stroke cushion and in an almost gladiatorial situation the Englishman was striding down the 18th fairway towards his tee shot as Brier attempted to make birdie on the adjoining 17th.

The Austrian put his third shot into the greenside bunker and could only make par. Emerson pitched to eight feet and although he missed his birdie chance it left Brier needing to hole his approach to the last to force a play-off.

He failed this unlikely task and Emerson was champion, claiming only his second-ever win after victory in the Challenge Tour’s 1998 Netcom Norwegian Open.

Afterwards he said he had tried not to let the weather affect him, although the sodden fairways made it heavy going twice round this 7,174-yard course.

“I tried to approach it as if it was a normal day. I warmed up before I played this morning and then warmed up again in the afternoon,” he said.

“I’ve played in worse conditions. Patience is the key when the weather is bad but I have played reasonably well this year so I came into the tournament feeling reasonably confident.”