Cazoo Open 2022: ‘Over the moon’ – Callum Shinkwin cruises to victory as rivals wilt at Celtic Manor

Callum Shinkwin secured his second win on the DP World Tour with a fine display to claim the Cazoo Open.

Shinkwin has never finished outside the top 11 on his previous visits, and he finally got over the line on Sunday, doing it the hard way given the fiendish conditions in South Wales.

Those with decent memories will remember the 2010 Ryder Cup and how wet Celtic Manor was. Those were extreme conditions, but it often plays soft with receptive greens.

But during a hot, dry UK summer, the course was playing hard and fast with greens that were tough to hold.

It proved too tricky a test for most, as there were only 17 players under par after 72 holes.

Final Round Leaderboard

• 1. Callum Shinkwin, -12
• 2. Connor Syme, -8
• T3. Julien Guerrier, -5
• T3. Renato Paratore, -5
• T3. Andy Sullivan, -5
• T3. David Dixon, -5
• T3. Lucas Bjerregaard, -5
• 8. Paul Waring, -4
• T9. Marcus Armitage, -3
• T9. Jazz Janewattananond, -3
• T9. Matti Schmid, -3

Shinkwin – a winner of the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Open in 2020 – was the only player to get into double figures, with his victory forged on the back of aggression off the tee, sensible iron play and brilliant putting.

“Over the moon,” an emotional Shinkwin, who revealed his grandma died three weeks ago, said. “I was playing well. You have just got to trust.

“As long as I did what I had to do, as long as no one came through the pack – which was not going to happen as the course was playing too tough – I was confident.

“I am just over the moon that I played great and finished it off.”

Things could have gone awry for Shinkwin on the second hole after he got out of position in the run-off area and took three attempts to get on the green.

A bogey brought him back to playing partner Julien Guerrier at -10, but from that moment on it was one-way traffic as Shinkwin forged forward and the Frenchman faltered.

Guerrier threw away a winning chance at the Cazoo Classic last month. He never had the trophy in his grasp at Celtic Manor, but he played passively from the tee and simply made too many mistakes.

Bogeys on one, three, four and five saw him drop five shots off Shinkwin by the turn and it was too big a deficit to claw back.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for Shinkwin, as he added to his bogey on the second with further dropped shots on seven and eight. But he bounced back with a birdie on the ninth, grabbed an excellent par on 10 and birdied 11.

Shinkwin held a five-shot lead over Guerrier on the 13th, and the Frenchman waved the metaphorical white flag when finding the water off the tee for a double bogey.

The leader made a bogey of his own on 13, but no player emerged from the pack and he extended his lead to six shots with a birdie on 15. It came via an aggressive option off the tee, as Shinkwin drove the green and was rewarded for not backing off.

With six shots to play with over the closing three holes, it should have been a coast for Shinkwin. But Celtic Manor has a sting in its tail and after a bogey on 16, he had to scramble a par from the bunker on 17 to take a three-shot lead down the last as Connor Syme began a charge with three birdies on the spin.

“I struggled with 17 all week,” Shinkwin said. “So to hole that putt to guarantee a three-shot lead down the last was huge.”

Syme failed to find the fairway off the tee on 18, meaning he could not go for the green in two, and it enabled Shinkwin to enjoy his walk down the last to secure his win on the back of a round of 70.

David Howell’s 700th appearance on the DP World Tour did not end as he had hoped, as a round of 74 saw him slip back to two-over.