Bernd Wiesberger Wins Italian Open

The Austrian beat Matt Fitzpatrick by one to win his third title of the season

Bernd Wiesberger Wins Italian Open
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The Austrian beat Matt Fitzpatrick by one to win his third title of the season

Bernd Wiesberger Wins Italian Open

Bernd Wiesberger won his third title and second Rolex Series event of the year at the Italian Open.

The Austrian shot a closing bogey-free 65 (-6) to beat Matt Fitzpatrick by one at Olgiata Golf Club in Rome.

The 34-year-old moves up to a career-high 22nd in the Official World Golf Ranking and now tops the Race to Dubai with six tournaments left.

His return has been incredible after being ranked outside of the top 300 in the world this year following time out with a wrist injury.

Wiesberger now has seven European Tour victories after his three this year at Made in Denmark, the Scottish Open and Italian Open.

Watch: Wiesberger's winning round -

"It's been a great summer for me," he said.

"I've had a lot of good golf shown and a lot of progress after coming back from the last year.

"I've won three times this year and it's been the same every time, I've just really enjoyed my time and I'm positive to be back out there because I know how tough it was when I had to withdraw from these great events.

"I've played really well in the right events in Ireland and the Scottish and here this week which helps getting up there in the Race to Dubai. I feel excited about what is ahead of us in these last four events."

54-hole leader Matt Fitzpatrick looked likely to win his sixth European Tour title but a double-bogey 7 on the par-5 9th ultimately cost him.

The Englishman has now had four runners-up finishes on the European Tour this season and is fourth in the Race to Dubai.

Kurt Kitayama, winner of this season's Mauritius and Oman Opens, finished in 3rd place for the second-best week of his career in terms of world ranking points.

The American is one of the favourites to win the Rookie of the Year award alongside Robert MacIntyre and Guido Migliozzi.

Related: Bernd Wiesberger What's in the bag?

Italian Open leaderboard -

1 Bernd Wiesberger -16

2 Matt Fitzpatrick -15

3 Kurt Kitayama -12

4 Matthias Schwaab -11

4 Andrew Johnston -11

4 Robert MacIntyre -11

7 Shubhankar Sharma -9

7 Francesco Laporta -9

7 Matt Wallace -9

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Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!

Elliott is currently playing:

Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV