Hanson wins SAS Masters
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (TICKER) —Peter Hanson defied cold, wet and windy conditions to win the SAS Masters on Sunday.
The 30-year-old, whose only previous European Tour victory in 174 starts came in Spain three years ago, hung on in a nervous finish to defeat countryman Pelle Edberg and Nick Dougherty of England by one shot.
For Dougherty, it meant a runner-up finish in the event for the second year running, but there was real drama attached to his performance this time.
The 26-year-old Ryder Cup hopeful tweaked his back somehow during the night and in trying to warm up in the gym it got only worse.
“What a day. If my chiropractor had been here he might have told me to pull out, so I’m glad he wasn’t,” Dougherty said. “After all I’ve been through I was going to finish no matter what.”
He earned just short of $208,000 and although he stays 14th in the cup race, he is now in much closer touch with just two events to go.
Hanson, meanwhile, moves up from 24th to 17th and will play in this week’s KLM Open in Holland rather than taking a break because he still has an outside chance to make the team.
“It feels great, of course,” said Hanson, who finished at 9-under-par 271. “It’s been a long wait for me. “I started pretty well, but then struggled on the back nine the same as yesterday.”
From four clear with eight to go he double-bogeyed the 11th and bogeyed the 16th and 17th.
He remained one ahead moving to the tee at the last, however, and a superb iron to the heart of the green proved the decisive shot after Edberg had just failed to hole from long range.
