Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
Lucas Herbert of Australia celebrates after winning on the second playoff hole at Emirates Golf Club on Sunday.

By Kent Gray
Lucas Herbert emerged from a wild final round at the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic on Sunday to claim his maiden European Tour title and celebrate Australia Day in style.

The 24-year-old Victorian was the last man standing after a dramatic final day of brutal winds and blown out scores at Emirates Golf Club, beating South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout with a two-putt birdie at the second extra hole of just the sixth playoff in the Desert Classic’s 31-year history.

He becomes the second Australian to win the Dallah trophy, 23 years after left-hander Richard Green beat countryman Greg Norman and Welshman Ian Woosnam in the tournament’s third playoff. They’ll be cheering 7200 miles away in Herbert’s native Bendigo, as will the world No. 223’s accountant after the young Aussie’s $541,660 windfall.

Herbert and Bezuidenhout both started the final round six strokes adrift of 54-hole leader Ashun Wu but more crucially 70 and 80 minutes respectively ahead of the Chinese pacesetter. It meant less time battling the worst of Sunday afternoon’s brutal weather as gusty winds and even rain lashed the Majlis and saw just 14 of the 71 players return scores under par.

Matching 68s got them to -9 for the championship and one by one Victor Perez, Kurt Kitayama, Wu, defending champion Bryson DeChambeau and finally Tom Lewis faded in the turbulence, Lewis’ 74 the best of the vanquished five.

While Herbert traded two bogeys with six birdies in his 68, Bezuidenhout went blemish-free until the 72nd when he inexplicably dumped his third shot into the water fronting the par-5. A par would have given the big South African a second European Tour title but a gritty bogey putt at least gave him a chance in overtime.

Herbert looked as though he’d thrown away any chance of the Dallah in the first hole of the playoff when he sent his second shot into the water with a wild slice. But he conjured a par with a tremendous wedge from the drop zone after Bezuidenhout sent his birdie attempt rolling past.

Herbert made no mistake at the second time of asking, a gutsy-drive and iron approach from 189 yards setting up a two-putt birdie for victory as Bezuidenhout was forced to settle for a par after failing to get up and down from a drop-zone beyond the green.

It was a dramatic end to an exhausting day as the conditions allowed the Major of the Middle East to truly live up to its marketing moniker.

Wu needed only a one-over 73 to hold onto his overnight lead and a 74 to make it into the playoff and started well enough, going out in even par. But a double-bogey on the 10th, after tree trouble, started his slide as he dropped three more shots in the next five holes.

Like so many in the gusty wind, the Chinese 34-year-old struggled to get critical putts to the hole and when he did, watched them cruelly lip out to eventually sign for a 77 and finish T-6.

The Chinese player’s final group partner Victor Perez, just a shot back through 54 holes, never recovered from a bogey-bogey start while Kurt Kitayama, two back to start the day, got it to -10 early but never really threatened, a chip-in at 17 his highlight in a 75.

DeChambeau had a share of the lead when he birdied the 13th to get back to even par for the day and -9 for the championship, where he had started the final round. The American safely negotiated the 14th but thereafter started to unravel, four successive bogeys ended his admirable title defence.

It started with a tee shot lost way right on the par-3 15th, before a tee shot left on 16 and an approach left in similarly uninhabitable rough left him short-sided. It was then curtains on the penultimate hole as his pushed drive was followed by an undercooked flop shot, a flubbed second that made it only as far as the apron and a pulled putt.

Needing a miraculous albatross to force a play-off on the last, the Mad Scientist had a go with a metal wood from yet more deep rough but didn’t stand a chance, his second going for a swim well short of the 18th green. DeChambeau finally signed for a 76 to finish T-8 with Frenchman Mike Lorenzo-Vera (71) and Scot Bob MacIntyre (72), the latter thrilled with a top-10 after being a touch and go starter this week with a hand injury.

Tom Lewis, starting two back, had the last chance to sneak into overtime but was left to rue a pushed birdie putt on the 17th that would have got him to -8 and needing a birdie down the last to get into the playoff. As it was, the Englishman reached the deciding par-5 in two with an iron, but gave his necessary eagle putt way to much borrow and not enough oomph and ended up three-putting for par and a final round 74.

In the end none of the last 13 players out could better par with MacIntyre in the seventh to last group the latest of the starters to achieve that.

One of the major benefactors of an early start was Dubai-domiciled Adri Arnaus, the Spaniard, playing with Lucas, carding a 70 to climb 10 spots to a share of 3rd. It was some score when you consider six players scored more than 80, the highest of them an 83 from former Emirates Golf Club champion Sebastian Heisele (Germany).

31st OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic – Final Top-10 scores:

1. HERBERT, Lucas (AUS) -9*
2. BEZUIDENHOUT, Christiaan (RSA) -9
3. Arnaus, Adri (ESP) -7
3. BURMESTER, Dean (RSA) – 7
3. LEWIS, Tom (ENG) -7
6. KITAYAMA, Kurt (USA) -6
6. WU, Ashun (CHN) – 6
8. LORENZO-VERA (FRA) – 5
8. MacINTYRE, Robert (SCO) – 5
8. DECHAMBEAU, Bryson (USA) – 5

* Herbert won in a playoff at the second extra hole