While there was a Spanish ‘David and Goliath’ scenario playing out on Sunday in the DP World Tour’s acciona Open de España, Jayden Schaper finished in ninth place with a fine closing four-under-par 67.
In the end, Angel Hidalgo took down his more illustrious countryman Jon Rahm on the second hole of a play-off for an emotional first DP World Tour title. They had finished all tied up at 14-under-par, and Schaper was on nine-under, with a dropped shot on the par-three 17th dropping him out of what could have been a share of third.
In the end, it was Schaper’s fifth top-10 finish of the season after he pulled off four in a row in South Africa and Mauritius right at the beginning of the season. It was his best finish since Mauritius back in December last year. In that period, he has missed 10 cuts and had a best finish of a share of 13th in the European Open in June and the PGA Tour co-sanctioned Barracuda Championship in July.
The strong week projected Schaper to rise to 58th in the Race to Dubai rankings as the season heads towards its climax and opens up the possibility of his being able to play in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship.
Louis de Jager had a closing 69 to finish in a share of 18th on five-under-par, while Jacques Kruyswijk’s level-par 72 put him in a share of 43rd on one-under. Dylan Frittelli had a level-par 71 and finished on two-over for the tournament in a share of 61st.
