Matthew Southgate completed one of golf’s most inspiring stories by securing his maiden HotelPlanner Tour title at the Swiss Challenge, 11 years after overcoming testicular cancer, with a nine-under-par final round of 62 at Golf Sempach.

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The Englishman finished the day with an eight-stroke advantage over a chasing pack which included English duo Geroge Bloor and Tom Sloman, Hamish Brown, Julian Perico, Tadeas Tetak, Martin Vorster and Marc Warren.

The 37-year-old was quick out of the blocks with back-to-back birdies to start and made four more gains before the turn to reach 20 under par for the week, moving five shots clear of Warren and Bloor at the halfway point.

Starting the day one shot behind overnight leader Bloor, Southgate closed the gap to his compatriot with a birdie on the par four first. He continued that momentum with two more birdies in his next three holes before making three more gains; on hole six, seven and eight to pull five shots clear of the chasing pack.

Three back nine gains saw Southgate reach 23 under par, ending his day with back-to-back birdies to close out a memorable week in Lucerne.

“I played exactly how you would dream of playing,” he said. “I wanted to get off to a hot start, I felt very comfortable this morning.

“I knew that all I could do was stick to the plan. I expected something to go wrong at some point, and it didn’t, I putted fantastically well.

“It has been a great week. When I arrived on Monday, I really liked the look of the course with the longer rough, I knew it would catch a few players out, I made a plan and stuck to it.”

“I was so focused on my own game, I didn’t really look at any leaderboard until the big one at the back of the 11th green, I expected to be in front and when I saw I was five in front, I didn’t know how to respond to it, I’ve never been in that position many times in my career.”

Southgate has over 300 DP World starts to his name and with nine top ten finishes already on the HotelPlanner Tour, he was pleased to get over the line for his maiden title.

Starting the week in 94th on the Road to Mallorca Rankings, Southgate is aware of the impact the win will have on his promotion chances.

“I’m immensely proud,” he added. “There are so many people I should be thanking. A lot of people around the world know how much I love this game.”

Australian Haydn Baron, American Alex Goff, Indian Veer Ahlawat and Dane Sebastian Freidrichsen settled for a share of ninth with South African Louis Albertse finishing the week in solo 13th.

The win moves Southgate to ninth on the Road to Mallorca Rankings, with MJ Daffue remaining at the top with his two wins.

The Road to Mallorca heads to Austria for the Interwetten Open taking place at Schladming-Dachstein Golf Club in Oberhaus from June 11-14.

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