Bernd Wiesberger wins Open de France

Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger carded a superb final round of 65 to win the Alstom Open de France at Le Golf National in Paris by three shots from James Morrison of England.

Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger carded a superb final round of 65 to win the Alstom Open de France at Le Golf National in Paris by three shots from James Morrison of England.

Wiesberger began the final round three shots back of 54-hole leader Jaco Van Zyl of South Africa, but the Austrian made four straight birdies from the 4th and added another at the 9th to reach the turn in just 31 strokes.

Watch Bernd Wiesberger's slow  motion swing sequence

On the testing back nine at Le Golf National, Wiesberger played steadily, reeling off eight straight pars to keep the pack at bay. He made an excellent par save on the difficult 17th, then put the icing on the cake with a birdie at the closing hole to win with something to spare. It’s his third European Tour title and his first since 2012. Picking up a cheque for €500,000, he has jumped to fourth place on the Race to Dubai standings.

“I’m delighted with the performance. I played aggressively today but nothing too stupid,” he said. “I played well on the back nine and gave myself a number of chances. The save on the 17th was huge and it was nice to finish with a birdie on the last. This will give me a lot of confidence heading towards The Open Championship. I love St Andrews and can’t wait to get to Scotland.”

Van Zyl stumbled early with two bogeys on his front nine. He closed with a 73 and dropped back into third place. Although disappointed to finish poorly, he can console himself with the fact he has earned one of the three spots in The Open Championship that were on offer for top-10 finishers this week not already qualified for the year’s third Major. The other two spots went to James Morrison of England and Spain’s Rafa Cabrera-Bello.

Morrison also played an excellent final round. Although he couldn’t match Wiesberger’s 65, he did post a fine 67 to climb into solo second place.

“My game is improving every day, I’m doing the right things,” he said. “Bernd played too perfectly today. He won the golf tournament and it’s as simple as that.”

Martin Kaymer of Germany gave himself a chance with three birdies in his first 12 holes. But he couldn’t close the gap to Wiesberger. After finding the water on the last, he made a double-bogey six and dropped back to 7-under par and to fourth place for the week.

Home favourite Victor Dubuisson had a day to forget. His opening tee shot found the water and although he recovered the dropped shot with a birdie at the 3rd, things unravelled for the Frenchman when he racked up a seven on the par-4 7th. Like playing partner Kaymer, he too found water on the last and the resulting double saw him fall right back into a tie for 12th place.

Alstom Open de France Le Golf National, Paris, France Jul 2-5 Purse: €3,000,000, par 71

1    Bernd Wiesberger (Aut)    68    72    66    65    271    €500,000 2    James Morrison (Eng)    71    68    68    67    274    €333,330 3    Jaco Van Zyl (RSA)    68    71    64    73    276    €187,800 4    Martin Kaymer (Ger)    69    69    69    70    277    €150,000 5    Rafa Cabrera-Bello (Esp) 68    70    72    69    279    €127,200 T6    Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 75    70    67    68    280    €84,300 T6    Andy Sullivan (Eng)    71    70    69    70    280    €84,300 T6    Francesco Molinari (Ita)    70    69    70    71    280    €84,300 T6    Brendan Steele (USA)    72    69    67    72    280    €84,300 T10    Thongchai Jaidee (Tha)    70    74    65    72    281    €57,600 T10    Max Kieffer (Ger)        70    70    65    76    281    €57,600

Note: Player score in bold signifies Titleist ball usage