Australia's Brett Rumford finished four clear of Mikko Ilonen from Finland to take victory in the Volvo China Open and win for the second week running on the European Tour.
Rumford started the final round one clear of Ilonen, but he rallied with five birdies in 10 holes from the 5th. The Finn dropped shots on the 13th and 14th and that gave the Australian a six shot lead with four holes to play.
It didn't matter then that Rumford made bogeys at the 15th and 17th holes. He cruised home to the win and moved to the top of the Race to Dubai standings. Two weeks ago he was languishing in 138th spot, but he's picked up €775,406 in the last two tournaments to climb to the number one position.
"As with last week I'm kind of speechless at the moment," he said. "It's quite surreal - it's the first time I've actually played the week after a win so I'm more than pleased. It's hard to get my head around it at the moment."
Rumford is only the 31st player to win in consecutive weeks on the European Tour. The last man to achieve the feat was Branden Grace who took the Joburg Open and Volvo Golf Champions back in January 2012.
Ilonen picked up his second runner's-up finish of the season and he was full of praise for Rumford, particularly his skills around the greens.
"I had a number in my mind and that is what Brett finished on," he said. "Brett did so well not to make more bogeys. His short game, bunker play and wedges were unbelievable today - I don't see too many better players than him in the world in that area of his game. So he definitely deserved to win."
France's Victor Dubuisson fired an excellent closing round of 68 to take third place on his own, one ahead of Robert-Jan Derksen of Holland.
Volvo China Open Binhai Lake Golf Club, Tianjin, China May 2-5, purse €2,500,000 par 72 1 Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 67 69 68 272 €407,906 2 Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 69 63 73 71 276 €271,938 3 Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 71 72 66 68 277 €153,210 4 Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 66 70 73 69 278 €122,372 T5 Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 71 66 69 73 279 €94,716 T5 Ricardo Santos (Por) 70 72 68 69 279 €94,716 7 Andreas Harto (Den) 72 71 70 67 280 €73,423 T8 Felipe Aguilar (Chi) 71 73 68 69 281 €52,498 T8 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 70 73 68 70 281 €52,498 T8 Paul Casey (Eng) 71 68 72 70 281 €52,498 T8 Joost Luiten (Ned) 73 68 68 73 281 €52,498
Note: Player score in bold signifies Titleist ball usage
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