HANSEN COMES OUT OF THE BLUE TO BEAT

ROSE IN PLAY-OFF FOR BMW PGA TITLE

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE

Anders Hansen secured the 2007 BMW PGA Championship after an enthralling final day over the West Course at Wentworth Club, Surrey, ended with the Dane holing a 25 foot birdie putt in a sudden-death play-off against England’s Justin Rose.
That winning putt was worthy of any championship and made Hansen the worthiest of winners. As soon as he struck it there was never any doubt as to his ball’s final destination as it snaked down the green and broke perfectly from left to right before finding the middle of the cup.
In colloquial golfing parlance, Hansen ‘drained it’, and in doing so secured the first prize of €725,000 and made a quite incredible leap of 253 places on the European Tour Order of Merit, from 262nd to ninth position in one almighty swoop.
Indeed, the same could be said for his performance over the last two rounds of the four spectacular days of golf that made the 2007 BMW PGA Championship another memorable week the championship’s imposing history.
Level par after the first two days, not many observers would have tipped Hansen to lift a second BMW PGA Championship title (he won it for the first time in 2002), but an excellent five under par 67 on Saturday afternoon left him just five off the pace going into the last round.
As the heavens opened and conditions became strenuous over the West Course, Hansen kept his head down, maintained his cool and got the job done with a final round of three under par 69 for eight-under-par 280 that saw him overtake clubhouse leader Vijay Singh, with Rose, Miguel Angel Jiménez and Richard Sterne all coming down the stretch with a chance to catch or pass him.
In the end, Rose was the only man who could match Hansen’s eight under total, which he did in the most thrilling fashion with a sublime pitching wedge approach to the 18th green. Well aware that he needed to get up and down from 109 yards to force extra holes, the Englishman produced a majestic approach that checked 20ftt beyond the flag and spun back to with six inches of the hole.
He could not repeat that stroke of genius in the play-off though, and after Hansen holed out so magnificently at the first extra hole, Rose’s own birdie effort slid past the hole to leave the Dane celebrating his second victory in the European Tour’s flagship event.
“I think it means a lot more to me this time than the first time I won it,” smiled Hansen. “It’s just a fantastic feeling because I have put in so much hard work and effort recently.
“What means most to me is how I feel about myself and how I feel about my game and what I do, and right now it feels pretty good.
“I have say a great thank you to my caddie, John McClaren, for everything he has done for me this week. This is the first week that he’s been out with me and I don’t think that I could have won without him. He just seemed to understand how I was thinking and what was going on in my mind and my golf swing. In fact, I definitely couldn’t have done it without him.”
Rose was gracious in defeat. “I guess it is disappointing, you are that close, when you're obviously in a play-off, you come that close to winning a tournament and it was almost really weird,” said the Englishman.
“It was over so quickly. Anders rolled in the putt and I missed mine and that was it. That’s what sudden death's all about. All in all, it's hard not to be pleased about playing so well at home and playing so well at a tournament that I really do love and a tournament that I've come to watch many times as a kid. So to be right up there in the mix would have been a dream of mine back in the day.”
There can be little doubt that a player of Rose’s ability will have further opportunities to fulfil that dream in the near future, but for the moment it is Hansen who is living the dream after that wonderful sudden-death putt that secured the second BMW PGA Championship of his career.

FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4 x 72). Players from GB&I unless stated.
280 Anders Hansen (Den) 74 70 67 69, Justin Rose 66 70 73 71 (Hansen won play-off at first hole. Hansen wins £495,848, Rose £330,563)
281 Vijay Singh (Fiji) 73 72 70 66, Richard Sterne (SAf) 68 73 66 74 (£167,497 each)
282 Angel Cabrera (Arg) 70 66 76 70, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 68 72 72 (£115,136 each)
283 Luke Donald 71 72 71 69 (£89,252)
284 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 70 73 72 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Thai) 73 70 71 70, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 72 73 68 71, Richard Green (Aus) 73 73 67 71
285 Andres Romero (Arg) 70 72 75 68, Peter Lawrie 76 69 71 69, Mikko Ilonen (Fin) 68 71 74 72, Lee Westwood 71 72 70 72, Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 77 69 67 72, Paul Casey 73 67 72 73, Markus Brier (Aut) 73 68 70 74, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 70 70 78
286 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 72 72 72 70, Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 68 71 74 73, Nick Dougherty 69 71 71 75, Paul Broadhurst 66 72 68 80
287 Ernie Els (SAf) 68 76 72 71, Brett Taylor 71 73 72 71, Simon Khan 67 75 73 72, Padraig Harrington 69 69 75 74, Fredrik Andersson (Swe) 69 72 72 74
288 Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 73 68 75 72
289 Martin Kaymer (Ger) 71 75 73 70, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 67 72 78 72, Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 73 73 72, Marc Warren 70 75 72 72, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 71 72 73 73, Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 73 71 72 73, Steven Jeppesen (Swe) 73 72 71 73, Colin Montgomerie 70 76 70 73, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 72 71 75 (33,978 Euros each).
290 Thomas Bjorn (Den) 74 70 73 73, Ross Fisher 70 67 69 84
291 Martin Erlandsson (Swe) 70 75 75 71, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spa) 70 76 73 72, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 71 75 73, Robert Karlsson (Swe) 72 72 72 75, James Kingston (Rsa) 70 71 74 76, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 77 68 70 76
292 Andrew Oldcorn 74 71 72 75 (21,315 Euros).
293 Emanuele Canonica (Ita) 72 70 77 74, Paul McGinley 74 69 76 74, Ariel Canete (Arg) 72 73 73 75, Oliver Wilson 70 71 76 75, Lee Slattery 69 71 76 77
294 Christopher Hanell (Swe) 72 72 74 76, Stephen Dodd 72 74 70 78
295 Jarmo Sandelin (Swe) 76 70 76 73, Mattias Eliasson (Swe) 72 72 76 75, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 72 74 73 76, James Hepworth 71 72 75 77
297 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (Spa) 72 70 78 77, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 68 75 76 78, Yang Yong-eun (Kor) 68 78 73 78, Matthew Millar (Aus) 69 69 79 80
298 Thomas Levet (Fra) 70 76 79 73, Miles Tunnicliff 71 73 75 79, Garry Houston 74 71 74 73, Richard Bland 71 71 76 80
300 Shiv Kapur (Ind) 67 71 81 81
301 Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 72 73 78 78, Rafael Echenique (Arg) 70 76 76 79
302 Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 74 72 77 79
303 Marcel Siem (Ger) 73 72 79 79, Louis Oosthuizen (SAf) 69 77 76 81
304 Brett Rumford (Aus) 77 69 81 77
306 Mark Foster 71 75 80 80, Johan Axgren (Swe) 75 71 77 83