Joshua White produced a dramatic turnaround coming down the home stretch to complete a thrilling wire-to-wire victory in the Royal D’Anfa Open, the opening event on the 2014 Mena Tour on Thursday.
Starting the day a shot in front, the Englishman slipped four behind with four holes to play but held his nerve to beat a hard-charging Faycal Serghini by one shot for his first win since turning professional last year.
Amid high drama and sharp swings of fortune, White birdied the 15th while Serghini dropped a shot to reduce the margin to two and then eagled the 16th to draw level with the leading Moroccan pro, who then squandered his last chance when he bogeyed the 17th.
Leading by one going into the final hole, White closed with a par for a 67 to reach 12-under for the tournament, but not before Serghini missed the birdie putt he needed to force a play-off.
“I don’t have the words to describe how delighted I feel at the moment,” said White, 23, after receiving the winner’s trophy and a cheque for $9,000 (Dh33,000).
“It was a good day out there. I played solid golf. Even when I was four shots down, the thinking was to hang in there. I held my nerve coming down the stretch and that made the difference.”
“The victory has a special feeling after what happened in Oman in last year,” said White, who lost to Monaco’s Sandro Piaget in a play-off that lasted three holes. “I hope this win can kick-start the season.”
Morocco’s Serghini was again left ruing missed putts at crucial moments.
“This is the third time in the last four or five I have missed out on sealing a victory,” he said. “I lost in a play-off in Turkey and then in Al Ain and here again.
“I am knocking on the door repeatedly. Hopefully, my time will come soon. Let’s be honest, I have no hard feelings. I think Joshua played some great golf in the last four holes and deserved to win.”
Serghini had the consolation of winning the Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation Award for being best Arab golfer in the field, a prize that carried $1,500 on top of the $6,000 for finishing second.
South Africa’s Tyler Hogarty closed with a 68 to finish alone in third on eight-under 208.
The Mena Golf Tour next week is in the Moroccan capital Rabat.
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