Apr 23, 2018: Alexander Levy held his nerve brilliantly down the stretch to win his fifth European Tour title at the Trophée Hassan II.
The Frenchman entered the final day at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam one shot off the lead but hit the front on the third and never looked back, signing for a 70 and finishing the week at eight under.
That gave him a one-shot victory over Spaniard Alvaro Quiros, who had a birdie-birdie finish to leapfrog Swedish pair Alexander Björk and Joakim Lagergren, Finn Mikko Ilonen and Italian Andrea Pavan.
Two birdies in the first five holes of the final round took Levy to the top of the leaderboard and a position which he defended staunchly from all challengers throughout a demanding final round.
Levy was matched on the front nine by playing partner Erik van Rooyen, but the Frenchman resisted the South African before fighting off the advances of Quiros, Björk, Lagergren, Ilonen and Pavan over the course of the back nine to register the fifth win of his European Tour career.
“This feels so good. I’m a little bit tired now because it was really tough today but I did a really good job today. For me, I played an amazing game. I’m so happy to win this trophy.
“Like what I said from the start of the season, I need to improve my game and I need to work a lot to even think about the Ryder Cup. I worked a lot the last two days, two weeks, and I won this trophy.
“So that’s helped me but I need to go step by step. It’s a good win but I need to go back to work because we can see we have a lot of good players in Europe. So it will be tough to make it.”
The victory comes in Levy’s 138th appearance on Tour and provides the perfect momentum as he goes in search of a successful defence of the Volvo China Open next week.
It is also the continuation of some excellent form this season, with three top tens in his other five events keeping him in contention to provide a local Member for the European Ryder Cup Team goes to Le Golf National in September.
The Frenchman has now moved to ninth position in both the season-long Race to Dubai and the European Points List for Ryder Cup qualification.
European Tour Release
