England’s Dan Bradbury climbed out of a congested leaderboard to claim his second DP World Tour title at the FedEx Open de France.
A total of 11 players tied for the lead in the closing stages of Le Golf National, but it was Bradbury who made the decisive move with a hat-trick of birdies from the 14th round.
The 25-year-old from Wakefield, who won the Joburg Open in November 2022 in just his third start, made no effort to close the 18th, closing with a 66 to set the club target on 16.
England’s Sam Bairstow and Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen, who missed good birdie opportunities in the 16th and 17th, both failed to birdie the last and forced a playoff.
Bradbury, who started the day two shots behind Sweden’s Jesper Svensson, admitted he got lucky on the 15th hole, where his drive came to rest inches from the water.
“Obviously I’ve been lucky, but I feel like I’ve had a couple of bad breaks this week, so it’s nice to get a good break in there,” Bradbury said. Sky Sports.
“And then just pushed it (the second shot), pushed it straight up and luckily it stayed (on the green). Throw in a terrific shot that went in and sometimes you just need it.
“Once I did it, I was like, ‘It doesn’t seem like my day, but there’s definitely something going on with me.’
Bradbury started the week ranked 98th in the Race to Dubai, but will move up to 25th, qualifying him for the season-ending playoffs in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
“The goal this week was to make the cut so I don’t have to go to Korea and try to keep my card, to be honest with you, to hear it sounds pretty good,” he added.
“I think I’ll look into flights to Dubai then.”
Winter was the first player to finish tied for 15th, surpassing the 64th.
“It was easy,” Winter said. “I was trying to put the golf aside a little bit, tease my caddy a little bit, and he’d tease me, doesn’t it make it a lot easier?
“The goal was fairways and greens and hopefully my putter is working. It worked great today. Only one (missed) nine bet but I can’t really complain about that, I read it completely wrong.
“Otherwise, played really well. I walked away from the bites I took. I made a crazy birdie on five. It should have been a bogey or a double, but it turned out to be a birdie.
“Very, very happy with the weekend to be buoy free so I can’t complain.”
Sky Sports will continue to be the home of the Ryder Cup, with all three days of the 2025 competition exclusively live from Bethpage Black in New York.
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