Dredge eyes World Cup repeat

Bradley Dredge is relishing Wales’ defence of the World Cup title in Barbados after securing a long-overdue second European Tour title in Switzerland.

Dredge carded a closing 67 in the Omega European Masters for a 17-under-par total of 267, cruising to an eight-shot victory.

It was the largest winning margin of the season so far, beating the previous best of five shots by David Howell at the BMW Championship at Wentworth.

Germany’s Marcel Siem and Italy’s Francesco Molinari shared second place on nine under after rounds of 73 and 71 respectively.

Defending champion and part-time local resident, Sergio Garcia, began the day five shots off the lead and never threatened the leaders. The world number eight eventually signed for a 71 to finish in a share of fourth place with Denmark’s Soren Kjeldsen and Scotland’s Marc Warren on eight under.

Dredge will renew his partnership with Stephen Dodd in the Caribbean from December 7-10, and joked: “Doddy and I are both high enough in the world rankings to qualify, and thankfully he’s picked me!

“I had a text from him last night while on holiday in Bangkok wishing me good luck and I told him to rest up and get ready for Barbados.”

Dredge, who picked up a career-best winner’s cheque of £227,000 (€334,000), had been second three times and recorded a total of 16 top-10 finishes since his previous victory in similarly mountainous terrain at the Madeira Island Open in 2003.

Numerous winning opportunities had gone begging but there was never any chance of a repeat in Switzerland from the moment he birdied the first three holes for the second day in succession.

On Saturday, he had followed that run with a double-bogey six on the fourth after driving out of bounds, but this time he made a regulation par and thereafter was able to cruise to victory, his only blemish coming with a bogey on the 16th.

“It feels really good,” said the 33-year-old from Cardiff, who will partner Stephen Dodd as Wales defend their World Cup title in Barbados in December.

“I got off to a great start but I knew I had a lot of people chasing me so I tried to stay aggressive. Since the French Open this year (when he was third at halfway but faded to 17th) I decided to fire at all the flags, within reason.

“I watch all the top players like Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Vijay Singh and they all seem to be aggressive when they can be.

“It was getting very frustrating, getting into position and not finishing off events. I felt as if I was playing good golf but shooting level par on the weekend is not going to win you many events.

“I came off the course and didn’t feel I had played that badly but hadn’t scored well so my intention was to be more aggressive.”