Richie Ramsay earns

35,818 Euros for top

10 finish, home in 31

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE (with additional words by Colin Farquharson)
Denmark’s Jeppe Huldahl held off Niclas Fasth and Ignacio Garrido to secure his maiden European Tour title at The Celtic Manor Wales Open today.
The 26-year-old, who held the joint lead overnight, produced a nerveless display on the final day and didn’t drop a shot on his way to a superb 67 and an aggregate score of nine under.
Fellow Scandinavian Fasth surged up the leaderboard with a closing 66 to finish a shot back on eight under, while Garrido finished on seven under after a double bogey at 16.
Huldahl’s performance was all the more remarkable considering he had never previously finished in the top ten on the circuit.
He becomes the ninth first-time winner on the 2009 European Tour schedule and follows Steen Tinning (2000), Simon Khan (2004) and Scott Strange (2008) as players to make The Celtic Manor Wales Open their first European Tour victory.
Birdies at three, eight, ten and 11 put him clear at the head of the leaderboard, and although Fasth briefly drew level on the back nine, Huldahl held his nerve to finish with seven straight pars.
On receiving the trophy, he said: “It feels amazing. I don't know what to say to be honest. I didn't even dream of this coming into this week.
“I couldn't feel my hands on the last three holes. I knew I was doing well, but I didn't know how well until I asked my caddie on the 18th tee.
“He told me I needed a par - and it's nice to have a par 5 hole at a time like that, and have a chance to lay up. But I couldn't put winning out of my head and it was quite emotional.”
Fasth picked up four birdies and an eagle to move from three under to nine under after 15 holes, but back-to-back bogeys on 16 and 17 proved costly for the Swede.
He held an impressive putt on the last to post 66 and move back to eight under, but ultimately it was to no avail.
“I was playing pretty decent golf, a little bit of a mixed bag this week,” said Fasth.
“But what's happened is the putting has come around, and I changed to a new Odyssey putter.
“I worked a lot with the Callaway boys this Tuesday, I mean, all day, and I putted fantastic all week. And that's from putting really, really poorly last week.”
Garrido, meanwhile, got to eight under with consecutive birdies at 14 and 15, but his challenge was ended by a double bogey at the 16th.
He subsequently birdied the last to finish on seven under, one shot clear of Gary Lockerbie and Danny Willett.
“I have to say that once I made a double bogey on 16, it was a bit disappointing,” Garrido admitted. “So I was trying to finish at least with a good feeling after that double bogey and that's what I did.”
The 1997 Ryder Cup player graciously praised the astonishing performance of Huldahl, adding: “He played fantastic. I mean, he was very solid from the beginning to the end, and never shook.
“I was impressed, I must say. For the first time to be leading the tournament, I know how tough it is to go out there and try and put together the same game you did on the first few days, and he did even better, so all credit to him.”
Lockerbie fired a stunning 65 to take the early clubhouse lead on day four. The Englishman picked up birdies on the 1st, ninth, 14th and 18th holes together with a superb eagle on the driveable par four 15th to rocket into contention.
Also on six under was Willett, who bogeyed three of his first four holes before launching an astonishing recovery around the turn.
Willett picked up four consecutive birdies between the eighth and 11th and picked up further shots on 13, 16 and 18 to close with a 67.
Oliver Fisher also carded a 67, the 20-year-old birdieing nine, ten and 11 before eagling the 18th to move to five under overall.
Alongside Fisher on five under were Richard Green and Jeev Milkha Singh, who both posted 69s, and Simon Dyson, who shot 70.
Frenchman Gregory Bourdy eagled the last to join a clutch of players on four under, including Aberdeen's Richie Ramsay, the halfway leader who did not have his troubles to seek over the last two day's play.

Failure to mark his ball before redropping from casual water - under the nose of Tournament Referee John Paramor - cost him a shot but he might consider himself not to be penalised two strokes for possibly improving a lie - when he was testing for casual water - during his third round. But give the Scot full marks for a gutsy finish. He came home in 31 for a 69 to finish joint 10th and earn a nice cheque for 35,818 Euros.
Another Scot, Clydeside-born, South African-raised, Canada-based Alan McLean recorded five birdies in his first seven holes en route to a 68, which took him to two under overall and earned him 26,143 Euros.

Callum Macaulay and Gary Orr earned 16,262 Euros apiece for sharing 31st place.
Nick Dougherty, who started the final round level with Huldahl and Garrido on five under, endured a miserable final round of 79 and slipped back to three over for the tournament.
Ryder Cup captains Colin Montgomerie and Corey Pavin finished 38th and 43rd respectively on three and four over.

European Tour Scoreboard
CELTIC MANOR WALES OPEN
FINAL TOTALS
Par 284 (4x71)
275 Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 69 71 68 67 (343,086 Euros)
276 Niclas Fasth (Swe) 71 68 71 66 (228,724 Euros).
277 Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 68 69 71 69 (128,863 Euros)
278 Gary Lockerbie 69 70 74 65, Danny Willett 73 66 72 67 (95,103 Euros each).
279 Jeev Milkha Singh (Ind) 69 68 73 69, Richard Green (Aus) 68 71 71 69, Simon Dyson 74 65 70 70, Oliver Fisher 72 69 71 67 (57,844 Euros each).
280 Chris Wood 72 69 70 69, Richie Ramsay 68 67 76 69, Paul Waring 71 68 70 71, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 67 71 72 70, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 70 70 70 70 (35,818 Euros each).
281 Klas Eriksson (Swe) 70 72 69 70, Paul McGinley 68 71 71 71
282 Alan McLean 66 73 76 67, Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spa) 70 70 72 70, Rhys Davies 73 69 71 69, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Swe) 70 67 75 70 (26,143 Euros each).
283 Mark Foster 69 69 72 73, David Lynn 69 73 72 69, Simon Khan 69 73 71 70
284 Santiago Luna (Spa) 73 69 71 71, Peter Lawrie 69 72 74 69
285 Robert Rock 68 68 74 75, Lee Slattery 68 73 74 70, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 72 70 74 69, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 74 70 74 67, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 67 73 71 74
286 Callum Macaulay 68 71 76 71, Gary Orr 68 73 72 73, Magnus A Carlsson (Swe) 70 69 72 75, Ross Fisher 70 66 75 75, Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 69 72 75 70, Marc Cayeux (Zim) 70 69 77 70 (16,262 Euros each).
287 Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 69 68 76 74, Colin Montgomerie 69 69 78 71, Branden Grace (Rsa) 70 72 74 71, Nick Dougherty 66 72 70 79, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 69 72 74 72, Chris Doak 72 69 74 72 (13,586 Euros each).
288 Richard Finch 71 68 73 76, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 66 73 74 75, Marcel Siem (Ger) 74 68 77 69, Corey Pavin (USA) 72 72 71 73, Scott Drummond 74 70 74 70, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 69 70 73 76
289 Marcus Higley 72 72 73 72, Stephen Dodd 72 67 76 74, John Bickerton 69 70 75 75, Jyoti Randhawa (Ind) 72 72 74 71
290 Christian Nilsson (Swe) 71 71 77 71, Iain Pyman 72 72 72 74, Benn Barham 69 72 78 71, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 68 76 76 70, Chapchai Nirat (Tha) 73 69 75 73, Bradley Dredge 74 70 71 75
291 Eirik Tage Johansen (Nor) 75 69 74 73, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 73 67 74 77, Taco Remkes (Ned) 67 75 78 71, Sion Bebb 75 69 74 73, Robert Dinwiddie 71 71 75 74, Scott Strange (Aus) 72 72 77 70, Jean-Francois Lucquin (Fra) 70 72 74 75, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 72 67 76 76
292 Andrew Oldcorn 76 68 73 75
293 Joakim Haeggman (Swe) 72 72 75 74, Jonathan Caldwell 72 72 74 75
294 Michael Curtain (Aus) 71 72 74 77, David Frost (Rsa) 66 76 75 77
297 Alfredo Garcia-Heredia (Spa) 72 71 84 70
299 Tim Dykes 68 75 78 78, Mark Brown (Nzl) 70 73 81 75
300 Birgir Hafthorsson (Ice) 69 73 79 79