Higgo cruises to second European Tour title

South Africa’s Garrick Higgo continued his brilliant start to life as a European Tour professional by sealing his second victory on the circuit at the Gran Canaria Open on Sunday.
The 21-year-old, who won last year’s Portugal Open on just his seventh European Tour start, eased to a three-shot triumph in the Canary Islands.
Higgo, the world number 110, started the final round with a two-shot lead and managed to stay out in front and finish on 25-under-par for the tournament. He could rise to as high as 65th in the rankings on Monday.
“It’s unreal. I can’t put it into words, it feels amazing,” Higgo told europeantour.com. “I am just going to keep going forward. I am playing next week, the week after and see where my game goes.”
In-form German Maximilian Kieffer, who lost in a play-off in Austria on his last outing, put some pressure on with an eight-under 62, but had to settle for second again.
Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen, part of Europe’s 2018 Ryder Cup-winning team, finished tied-fifth on 18-under in his first start of the year after struggles with injury and Covid-19.
Olesen is still waiting to stand trial on charges including sexual assault after being arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport in July 2019 after returning from an event in the United States. He was suspended by the tour after being charged with sexual assault, being drunk on an aircraft and common assault, but was cleared to return less than a year later after his trial was delayed until at least December 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all three charges Olesen led at the halfway stage, but fell back over the weekend with rounds of 70 and 66.


Leading scores
(par 70/GBR & IRL unless stated):
255-Garrick Higgo (RSA) 65-64-63-63
258-Maximilian Kieffer (GER) 63-65-68-62
259-Jeff Winther (DEN) 67-66-62-64
261-Sam Horsfield 69-61-65-66
262-Thorbjorn Olesen (DEN) 65-61-70-66, Connor Syme 71-61-62-68
263-Joachim B. Hansen (DEN) 63-67-66-67
264-Marcel Schneider (GER) 68-66-65-65, Richard Bland 64-66-68-66, Jack Senior 66-65-67-66, Darius van Driel (NED) 66-65-67-66, Joost Luiten (NED) 63-68-66-67, Matthias Schwab (AUT) 65-63-66-70, Matthieu Pavon (FRA) 66-64-64-70