Jaidee holds nerve for win

Thongchai Jaidee shot a three-under-par 69 to claim his first win on the European Tour in four years at the Enjoy Jakarta Indonesia Open today.

The Thai ace began the final round of the $1.25m co-sanctioned tournament with a one stroke advantage and went ahead by as many as four with birdies on four of the first seven holes at New Kuta Golf Club.

Bogeys on the eighth and 14th saw his lead trimmed to one but a birdie on the 16th gave him a cushion to take into the closing holes as he finished on 12-under-par 276 – two strokes ahead of Sweden’s Alexander Noren and the English pair of Steve Webster and Simon Dyson.

Noren shot a closing 70, Webster fired a bogey-free 68 while Dyson was left to rue a double bogey on the 14th in his closing 69.

Rafael Cabrera Bello of Spain carded the day’s best round of 65 to join Richard Bland (70) in a tie for fifth on nine under with Jyoti Randhawa of India (70) and the English pair of Simon Griffiths (71) and Simon Khan (68) a further shot back on eight under.

Thongchai continued a trend that has seen the third round leader or co-leader win every edition of the Indonesia Open since it was revived as a joint-sanctioned event by the European and Asian Tours in 2005.

Nursing a narrow lead at the start of the final round, he parred his first two holes before sinking consecutive birdies on the next three including a chip-in from the collar of the green on the fifth.

The 39-year-old narrowly missed out on a fourth in a row when his long putt lipped out on the sixth, but he holed his birdie attempt from the fringe on the seventh to improve to 13 under.

That briefly gave him a four shot advantage but he gave one back with a bogey on the par-three eighth after putting his tee shot into the bunker and blasting well past the pin from a dreadful lie in the sand.

His lead appeared fragile at times on the back nine and he found himself just one ahead of Webster when he bogeyed the 14th after putting his approach shot into rough and failing to get up and down.

But with Webster failing to capitalise on birdie opportunities on his closing holes, the Thai managed to stretch his advantage once again with a birdie on the 16th.

He nearly found trouble on the final hole when he missed his approach shot on the final hole, but he holed a testing par putt from eight feet to close out his third win on the European Tour and 11th on the Asian Tour.

Noren began the final round in second place, one stroke off the lead but dropped off the pace on the front nine after going out in 36 with two birdies and two bogeys on the front nine.

A bogey followed on the 14th after he needed two shots to escape a fairway bunker but the Swede closed back to within two shots of the lead with an eagle on the 16th and a birdie on the 17th.

He had the chance to put some pressure on Thongchai at the last but narrowly missed his 18-foot birdie attempt to finish tied for second with Webster and Dyson.

Webster, the leader after two rounds, slipped three shots behind Thongchai after carding a 72 yesterday but re-discovered his touch and closed the gap to the leader with birdies on the fifth, seventh, 10th and 16th.

However, he narrowly missed his birdie attempt at the 17th and left his 12-foot putt just inches short at the final green to miss out on his first Tour win since the 2007 Portugal Masters.

Dyson began the day on seven under and launched an early challenge for the lead, drawing level with Thonchai on 10 under after picking up three birdies on the first five holes.

However, the 2006 Indonesia Open winner was unable to sustain his challenge as he three-putted the seventh for a bogey and missed a short birdie putt on the 10th.

A birdie on the 11th put him back into contention but his challenge evaporated on the 14th when he carded a double bogey after he found a fairway bunker with his tee shot and shanked his shot from the sand into an unplayable lie behind a tree.

Birdies on the 16th and 18th proved too little, too late for the 31-year-old from York.