Great Dane Olesen wins Alfred Dunhill Links 

title by two shots

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Thorbjørn Olesen held his nerve to win the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and claim his third European Tour title at St Andrews today.

The Dane, pictured left on the Swlken Bridge with the trophy by courtesy of Getty Images(c), came second at this event in 2012 and went one better, posting a one under par 71 to finish the week on 18 under par, two shots clear of American duo Brooks Koepka and Chris Stroud.
Englishman Chris Wood and Austrian Bernd Wiesberger were among the large group one stroke further back on 15 under.
Olesen began his final round with a three-stroke lead over the chasing pack, but followed a birdie from eight feet on the first with a double bogey on the second and a bogey at the next to surrender the outright lead.
The Dane bounced back in style, picking up shots at the fourth and fifth holes to return to the top of the leaderboard.
After safely parring the next nine holes, Olesen extended his advantage to two strokes with a brilliant birdie from 50 feet at the 15th.

He then parred the notorious 17th to set up a victory stroll down the 18th – one of golf’s most iconic holes – before collecting a cheque for €708,171 which moves him up 99 places up The Race to Dubai (from 124th to 25th), into the top 75 in the World Ranking and to the head of the European Ryder Cup Points List.   The 25 year old began the back nine with three straight gains before carding his only bogey of the day at the 13th. Koepka responded immediately, rolling in his 15 foot birdie putt at the 14th before closing out his round with four straight pars to finish on 16 under. Stroud, meanwhile, opened his round with a bogey at the first before gains at the third, fourth and seventh holes took him to the turn in 34. The 33 year old continued his charge with successive gains at the tenth and 11th but dropped another shot at the 16th to fall back to 15 under. Stroud then birdied the final hole at St Andrews to join Koepka in a share of second place. Key quotes Thorbjørn Olesen: “It feels unbelievable. It's been a very tough year and standing here with this trophy is unbelievable. To win over these three golf courses and finishing off especially on St. Andrews is a great feeling. “I got too aggressive on the second hole, hit a great drive down there and felt like I had a good yardage, but was just too aggressive, and as soon as you get too aggressive on a links golf course, you get punished. So I just kept myself together and knew that I have tried it before. So stayed very patient. “Winning after the year I have makes this more personal, and like I said before, very emotional, walking down the 18th at the Old Course to win a tournament. It's been a very tough season for me, and I would like to give a special thanks to my coach's family and friends, and anyone who has been there. I kept believing. I shot a lot of good rounds actually but I couldn't manage to keep it together. It was nice this week just to play three great rounds of golf the first three and kept it together in this last round.” FINAL TOTALS 270 T Olesen (Den) 68 66 65 71, 272 C Stroud (USA) 68 66 70 68, B Koepka  (USA) 72 69 64 67, 273 C Wood  (Eng) 71 72 65 65, B Wiesberger  (Aut) 70 68 69 66, J Lagergren (Swe) 71 71 62 69, K Aphibarnrat (Tha) 75 63 66 69, B Hebert  (Fra) 69 67 67 70, 274 D Horsey (Eng) 72 70 64 68, D Drysdale (Sco) 68 72 66 68, S Cink (USA) 73 65 69 67, S Kjeldsen (Den) 65 72 69 68, 275 J Morrison  (Eng) 67 70 70 68, T Fleetwood  (Eng) 70 71 67 67, F Aguilar (Chi) 67 73 67 68, P Hanson (Swe) 70 72 66 67, B Dredge (Wal) 73 63 68 71, J Donaldson (Wal) 69 65 71 70, 276 G McDowell  (Nir) 68 69 69 70, S Gallacher (Sco) 67 72 68 69, F Fritsch  (Ger) 68 70 64 74, P Dunne (Irl) 64 70 72 70, B Evans  (Eng) 70 72 65 69, N Holman  (Aus) 68 68 72 68, A Wall (Eng) 65 68 73 70, S Lowry  (Irl) 74 69 66 67, 277 N Dougherty  (Eng) 72 67 70 68, E Els (RSA) 72 67 66 72, S Piercy (USA) 69 69 68 71, 278 J Mullen  (Eng) 64 69 74 71, J Walters (RSA) 72 69 68 69, B Grace  (RSA) 73 64 68 73, 279 C Bezuidenhout (RSA) 72 65 71 71, G Storm  (Eng) 69 68 68 74, S Jamieson  (Sco) 72 68 69 70, O Fisher  (Eng) 70 72 66 71, R Wattel  (Fra) 70 70 69 70, 280 M Carlsson  (Swe) 70 72 67 71, S Hansen (Den) 71 69 70 70, M Warren (Sco) 68 69 71 72, K Broberg (Swe) 64 74 70 72, M Nixon (Eng) 72 72 63 73, 281 V Dubuisson  (Fra) 74 68 67 72, M Ilonen  (Fin) 71 67 69 74, A Cañizares  (Esp) 69 67 70 75, Y Yang (SKor) 72 68 70 71, J Randhawa (Ind) 70 69 71 71, 282 E Espana (Fra) 73 68 68 73, G Bourdy (Fra) 71 70 69 72, A Otaegui  (Esp) 68 70 70 74, J Kruger (RSA) 73 68 69 72, 283 D Lingmerth (Swe) 71 66 73 73, F Zanotti (Par) 67 75 66 75, D Willett  (Eng) 74 68 68 73, R Finch  (Eng) 69 73 67 74, 284 M Kaymer (Ger) 68 68 74 74, 285 R Dinwiddie  (Eng) 71 69 68 77, N Colsaerts  (Bel) 73 70 67 75, 287 N Cullen (Aus) 70 73 67 77, G Stal  (Fra) 69 73 68 77, 288 D Van Tonder  (RSA) 69 70 71 78