Jeff

Winther

The 33-year-old Winther earned his maiden victory in his 129th start on the ET, carding rounds of 8-under 62 in the first and third rounds at Golf Santa Ponsa, sandwiching a 71 in tough conditions on Friday, and keeping his cool during a final-round 70 to finish at 15-under 265 and win by a shot over Spaniard Pep Angles and Jorge Campillo and Swede Sebastian Soderberg, who finished second for the second week in a row. Winther revealed Sunday that his 6-year-old daughter played an unexpected role in the victory after he and his wife accidentally locked themselves in the bathroom that morning. “There’s no lock on the door but the handle didn’t work,” he explained. “Our little girl Nora, 6 years old, had to go and find guys at reception to break down the door. We were in there for 45 minutes, I think. I thought, ‘Jeez not today, not Sunday, you’re leading the freaking event. Might not get there for your tee time.’ What a morning.” On the season, Winther has made 16 cuts in 22 starts with one other top 10 – a solo third place at the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open in April. He currently stands 37th in the Race to Dubai and is listed in the field for next week’s Portugal Masters, Nov. 4-7, at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course in Vilamoura. In four previous event appearances, Winther has missed the cut three times with a T-52 in 2017.

The Dane will have headaches remembering his back nine this Sunday at Education City GC in Doha. On the front nine he had been solid, making seven pars alongside two birdies at the first and seventh. With Jorge Campillo and David Drysdale struggling, that left him clear at the top. But the Spaniard recovered, the Scot remained steadfast and the Dane crumbled as the pressure increased. He made bogeys at the 12th, 16th and 17th to drop into a tie for third with Niklas Lemke and Kalle Samooja, an agonising one shot outside the play off between Drysdale and Campillo. He was 82nd on the Race to Dubai ahead of this week and will have to be consoled by the boost to his points total.

An excellent week so far for the Dane at the tournament’s new home of Education City GC in Doha and on Saturday he began his third round in sensational style, ticking the first, second and third, taking a breather at the fourth and then adding more red at the fifth (from 30’0") and seventh. He was suddenly right in the mix and promptly dropped a shot at the eighth. But he stood firm on the back nine, adding two birdies at the 11th and 17th. He needed just the one swing of the putter on half the holes and also drained a nasty six-footer on the last to avoid an ugly 18th green three-putt. He will be chasing just a fifth European Tour top ten on Sunday (his career-best is second in the 2016 Tshwane Open). Currently 82nd in the Race to Dubai, and with so much of the schedule already affected by the Corona virus, he’ll eye R4 as a big opportunity to tidy his position. “The course is wide and I like it!” he joked afterward. “Phenomenal greens. Great to putt on.”

That’s just three off Andy Sullivan’s clubhouse lead. The Dane had a bogey-birdie start and then reversed that trade at 6 and 7 before picking up another shot at 8. In yesterday’s R1 Winther played 10-13 in eagle-par-birdie-eagle but he could only manage even par over those four holes this time after one birdie (13) against one bogey (11). But he was better over 14-18 today, playing them in 1-under (birdie at 13) against yesterday’s 2-over. If Winther can cut out the mistakes, he has the scoring power to challenge this weekend.

That’s two swings back from leader and fellow Dane Nicolai Hojgaard. Everyone is getting a first look at Education City GC this week but Winther immediately liked what he saw, making eagle-2 at 10, adding a birdie at 13 before another eagle at the par-5 13th to hit 5-under after 4. In that sense, his final 66 was a slight disappointment as he didn’t make further progress from there. He dropped shots at 15 and 18, got them back via circles at the first two holes of his second nine and then swapped bogey-6 at 6 with a final birdie at 8. The 31-year-old finished T14 in this event at Doha GC last year and has cashed in all five starts in the calendar year. None of those have been better than T36 so he’ll look to try and cash in on this fast start.

Thus far the 2020 season has been a humdrum one for the Dane with two notable exceptions, however, they have been good rounds rather than good weeks. He was T49 in the Alfred Dunhill Championship and missed the cut in the Mauritius Open before Christmas, then afterward opened with a 65 in the South African Open, but drifted backward to T36 thereafter. T59 in Abu Dhabi followed, he made the Dubai Desert Classic cut and then posted another 65 in round three before a final lap 79 left him T37. Last year he missed the cut in this tournament, carding 69-73.

This week presents the Dane with a happy – and very unusual – sense of freedom and it’s perhaps just as well given his record on the course. First, however, the good news because he is not card chasing. In fact, if anything he is eyeing a short involvement in the late season, big money events (although he’ll need a good week at 84th in the rankings). But he has had three previous attempts at a full season on the European Tour and never ended the season better than 117th. Now the bad news: He has twice missed the cut here and the one time he didn’t he shot two 71s at the weekend for T52. But perhaps that freedom can allow him to express himself? A missed cut in the Italian Open came after T4 in Madrid and was only a second 36-hole cut in 12 appearances.

The Dane not only made a bold late move in the tournament, but also in the Race to Dubai. His stunning circuit of Club de Campo Villa de Madrid saw him leap 22 spots on the leaderboard and with it 14 places in the seasonal rankings. True, at 92nd he was not in a desperate situation, but his new position of 78th gives him the opportunity to breathe freely and maybe aim at the big money end-of-season events, a unique chance for a man who is in his fourth season on the ET – and every previous time he returned to Q School. He made early moves, ticking the fourth and ninth, then adding an eagle-3 at the seventh. Granted a glimpse of a card-saving round he took it with both hands, adding birdies at the 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th. A third top ten of the season and possibly the most satisfying of his career and he won’t care he was nine back of winner Jon Rahm.

The Dane is currently solo fourth with the afternoon wave in play. Winther made a par-bogey start this morning but balanced the books with a red number at No. 5 and got under par with another at the par-5 6th. After a run of pars around the turn, he birdied 13 and then made a late move with gains at 16 and 18 to jump out of the log-jam at 3-under. Winther shot 69s in rounds one and three at this course in 2017 when finishing T44 so this is his lowest lap by a shot. He’d arrived in Munich in solid form after three top 25s in his last four European Tour starts.

The Dane is in his fourth consecutive year on tour, but he has never made it easy for himself, each time ending the regular campaign outside the safe zone and having to return to Qualifying School to regain his playing rights. This season he currently sits at 101st so it’s not like he’s changing too much and with the big prize fund events to come he needs to act fast. He does have five top 25 finishes: T7 in the SA Open, T12 at the Oman Open, T14 in the Qatar Masters, T25 in the Trophee Hassan II and T18 last week at home. He just struggles to earn the really big checks. Last year he eased through the stroke play with laps of 67-69, then shot 1-over twice to progress from the last 64 but not the last 32.