Gran Canaria Lopesan Open R4

Gran Canaria 2021 R4
April 22-25
Meloneras Golf by Lopesan, Gran Canaria, Spain
€1,500,000
Round 1, Round 2, Round 3

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Garrick Higgo held off the challenge of Maximilian Kieffer to win his second European Tour title at the Gran Canaria Lopesan Open.

“It’s unreal. Jeez, I can’t put it into words, it feels amazing. It’s quite a relief finishing now.”

Gran Canaria 2021 R4

The South African had carded the lowest round of his European Tour career with a 63 on day three to put himself in the driving seat and he had extended his lead to four shots by the turn.

Kieffer – fresh off a play-off defeat last week in Austria – came home in 30 to sign for a 62 and pile on the pressure but Higgo kept his cool and registered another 63 to get 25 under par and seal a three shot victory.

“I felt great yesterday so I was looking forward to getting out today,” said Kieffer. “I hit great shots the front nine, wouldn’t say I struggled but the putting wasn’t as great as it has been the first two days maybe, and I three putted nine which was a bit disappointing at that moment, but then the back nine I started to just go for it. A nice eagle on ten and from then on, I just played phenomenal golf on the back nine.”

Gran Canaria 2021 R4

“I thought shot by shot. I think I birdied the short par four over the cliff which is the toughest drive, and I think I was 21-under then and I thought maybe I am close now but then I saw that Garrick was 23 so my mindset didn’t change at all. I was just trying to make as many birdies as possible.”

“I was just trying to go shot for shot. Even though it is windy you have to have the mindset. I learnt that last week. You have to have the mindset to make as many birdies as possible, so I was just trying to do that, and I did a decent job of that on the back nine today.”

Gran Canaria 2021 R4

Dane Jeff Winther picked up four shots in his last three holes to sign for a 64 and get to 21-under, two shots clear of England’s Sam Horsfield.

Higgo’s maiden victory at last season’s Open de Portugal at Royal Óbidos came in just his seventh event and this triumph at Meloneras Golf arrives in his 24th.

That makes him the fastest South African to two wins in European Tour history not including Major Championships, and the victory could also move the 21-year-old up to a career best 65th on the Official World Golf Ranking.

“I wasn’t nervous on the outside, but it was the first time ever that I have had a lead, you know starting the day, because all my other wins have been from behind,” said Higgo. “So I know what it is like to beat someone and I knew that it could change even on the 17th, so I was just trying to keep myself in the battle.”

Gran Canaria 2021 R4

“There is always room for improvement. My game is trending the right way. I have been working hard and there are things I can get better at, so I will just take every week as it comes and see where my game goes.”

“All of us dream to do things amazing. I spoke to Gary (Player) last night actually and he just said that there is no such thing as a lead and you should play like you are two behind, so that was nice from him and he has said it to me so many times, but I have never really had a lead, so I haven’t had to worry about that.”

Higgo’s victory secured a South African double, with Brandon Stone having won the Limpopo Championship on the European Challenge Tour earlier in the day, and his birdie on 18 meant he also claimed the 500th win by a former Challenge Tour player on the European Tour.

Gran Canaria 2021 R4

Pos.	Player	To Par	R1	R2	R3	R4	Total
1	Garrick Higgo	-25	65	64	63	63	255
2	Maximilian Kieffer	-22	63	65	68	62	258
3	Jeff Winther	-21	67	66	62	64	259
4	Sam Horsfield	-19	69	61	65	66	261
T5	Thorbjørn Olesen	-18	65	61	70	66	262
T5	Connor Syme	-18	71	61	62	68	262
7	Joachim B. Hansen	-17	63	67	66	67	263
T8	Richard Bland	-16	64	66	68	66	264
T8	Joost Luiten	-16	63	68	66	67	264
T8	Matthieu Pavon	-16	66	64	64	70	264
T8	Marcel Schneider	-16	68	66	65	65	264
T8	Matthias Schwab	-16	65	63	66	70	264
T8	Jack Senior	-16	66	65	67	66	264
T8	Darius van Driel	-16	66	65	67	66	264
T15	Jamie Donaldson	-15	65	67	64	69	265
T15	Justin Harding	-15	65	67	65	68	265
T15	Nicolai Højgaard	-15	67	64	66	68	265
T15	Adrian Meronk	-15	67	68	66	64	265
T15	Guido Migliozzi	-15	70	64	62	69	265
T15	Antoine Rozner	-15	66	68	67	64	265
T21	Maverick Antcliff	-14	66	63	71	66	266
T21	Alexander Björk	-14	67	66	64	69	266
T21	Jonathan Caldwell	-14	68	65	67	66	266
T21	Alejandro Del Rey (a)	-14	64	68	65	69	266
T21	Victor Dubuisson	-14	68	62	71	65	266
T21	Niall Kearney	-14	66	68	64	68	266
T21	Clement Sordet	-14	65	68	64	69	266
T21	Ashun Wu	-14	67	68	61	70	266
T29	Pep Angles	-13	71	64	65	67	267
T29	Wil Besseling	-13	64	63	69	71	267
T29	Aaron Cockerill	-13	71	62	65	69	267
T29	Calum Hill	-13	68	66	66	67	267
T29	Benjamin Poke	-13	66	66	66	69	267
T29	Garrick Porteous	-13	68	67	67	65	267
T29	Richie Ramsay	-13	68	65	66	68	267
T29	Robin Roussel	-13	63	65	72	67	267
T29	Lars van Meijel	-13	66	67	66	68	267
T38	Nino Bertasio	-12	69	63	68	68	268
T38	Dean Burmester	-12	65	67	65	71	268
T38	Ivan Cantero Gutierrez	-12	67	67	67	67	268
T38	Alejandro Cañizares	-12	70	65	67	66	268
T38	Rhys Enoch	-12	65	62	69	72	268
T38	Julien Guerrier	-12	68	67	66	67	268
T38	Scott Jamieson	-12	64	68	68	68	268
T45	Marcus Armitage	-11	69	64	72	64	269
T45	Ben Evans	-11	64	67	68	70	269
T45	Gregory Havret	-11	65	70	67	67	269
T45	Sebastian Heisele	-11	69	66	66	68	269
T45	Sihwan Kim	-11	67	65	69	68	269
T45	Romain Langasque	-11	67	63	68	71	269
T45	Zander Lombard	-11	66	65	70	68	269
T52	John Catlin	-10	67	67	67	69	270
T52	Justin Walters	-10	69	65	71	65	270
T52	Paul Waring	-10	68	65	71	66	270
T52	Oliver Wilson	-10	65	69	69	67	270
T56	Rafa Cabrera Bello	-9	65	67	67	72	271
T56	Sean Crocker	-9	67	68	69	67	271
T56	Richard Mansell (a)	-9	68	66	72	65	271
T56	James Morrison	-9	69	66	70	66	271
T56	Jordan Smith	-9	68	65	68	70	271
T56	Fabrizio Zanotti	-9	68	67	67	69	271
T62	Adri Arnaus	-8	69	66	69	68	272
T62	Ashley Chesters	-8	70	65	67	70	272
T62	Berry Henson	-8	70	63	72	67	272
T62	Andrew Johnston	-8	68	63	71	70	272
T62	Francesco Laporta	-8	66	68	69	69	272
T62	Michael Lorenzo-Vera	-8	65	68	70	69	272
T62	Max Schmitt	-8	66	69	66	71	272
T69	Oliver Farr	-7	68	67	67	71	273
T69	Matt Ford	-7	64	66	73	70	273
T71	Lucas Bjerregaard	-6	71	64	67	72	274
T71	Louis De Jager	-6	69	66	68	71	274
T71	Søren Kjeldsen	-6	71	63	65	75	274
T71	Andy Sullivan	-6	70	65	70	69	274
CUT	Dave Coupland	-4	70	66			136
CUT	Ross Fisher	-4	69	67			136
CUT	Oliver Fisher	-4	69	67			136
CUT	Tom Gandy	-4	67	69			136
CUT	Alfredo Garcia-Heredia	-4	69	67			136
CUT	Rikard Karlberg	-4	73	63			136
CUT	Janne Kaske	-4	69	67			136
CUT	Masahiro Kawamura	-4	69	67			136
CUT	Kurt Kitayama	-4	71	65			136
CUT	Pablo Larrazabal	-4	66	70			136
CUT	Richard McEvoy	-4	69	67			136
CUT	Jake McLeod	-4	66	70			136
CUT	Pedro Oriol	-4	71	65			136
CUT	Adrian Otaegui	-4	70	66			136
CUT	Eddie Pepperell	-4	65	71			136
CUT	Carlos Pigem	-4	70	66			136
CUT	Haydn Porteous	-4	68	68			136
CUT	Kalle Samooja	-4	68	68			136
CUT	Robin Sciot-Siegrist	-4	68	68			136
CUT	Sebastian Soderberg	-4	71	65			136
CUT	Joel Stalter	-4	68	68			136
CUT	Julian Suri	-4	64	72			136
CUT	Toby Tree	-4	68	68			136
CUT	Euan Walker (a)	-4	71	65			136
CUT	Suradit Yongcharoenchai	-4	67	69			136
CUT	Austin Bautista	-3	69	68			137
CUT	Steven Brown	-3	71	66			137
CUT	Jorge Campillo	-3	69	68			137
CUT	Liam Johnston	-3	70	67			137
CUT	Edoardo Molinari	-3	69	68			137
CUT	Alvaro Quiros	-3	67	70			137
CUT	Ricardo Santos	-3	69	68			137
CUT	Cormac Sharvin	-3	67	70			137
CUT	Lee Slattery	-3	67	70			137
CUT	Johannes Veerman	-3	70	67			137
CUT	Borja Virto	-3	66	71			137
CUT	Gaganjeet Bhullar	-2	69	69			138
CUT	David Drysdale	-2	68	70			138
CUT	Scott Fernandez	-2	70	68			138
CUT	Pedro Figueiredo	-2	72	66			138
CUT	Grant Forrest	-2	68	70			138
CUT	Raphael Jacquelin	-2	68	70			138
CUT	Matthew Jordan	-2	67	71			138
CUT	Tyler Koivisto	-2	68	70			138
CUT	Mikko Korhonen	-2	68	70			138
CUT	Ondrej Lieser (a)	-2	67	71			138
CUT	Tapio Pulkkanen	-2	67	71			138
CUT	Adrien Saddier	-2	69	69			138
CUT	Ajeetesh Sandhu	-2	66	72			138
CUT	Thomas Sloman	-2	71	67			138
CUT	Steven Tiley	-2	70	68			138
CUT	Dale Whitnell	-2	69	69			138
CUT	Yi Keun Chang	-1	71	68			139
CUT	Paul Dunne	-1	68	71			139
CUT	David Law	-1	71	68			139
CUT	Alexander Levy	-1	70	69			139
CUT	Shubhankar Sharma	-1	69	70			139
CUT	Carl Suneson	-1	71	68			139
CUT	Lorenzo Gagli	E	67	73			140
CUT	Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez	E	69	71			140
CUT	Jean Baptiste Gonnet	E	71	69			140
CUT	Oscar Sanchez	E	69	71			140
CUT	Eduardo De la Riva	1	71	70			141
CUT	Samuel Del Val	1	70	71			141
CUT	Gonzalo Fernandez-Castaño	1	68	73			141
CUT	Benjamin Hebert	1	72	69			141
CUT	Joakim Lagergren	1	73	68			141
CUT	Eduard Rousaud (a)	1	72	69			141
CUT	SSP Chawrasia	2	74	68			142
CUT	David Howell	2	71	71			142
CUT	Ross McGowan	2	73	69			142
CUT	Chris Wood	2	70	72			142
CUT	Ignacio Elvira Mijares	3	76	67			143
CUT	Matthew Southgate	3	71	72			143
CUT	Peter Hanson	4	74	70			144
CUT	Andrea Pavan	6	78	68			146
CUT	Inaki Fuentes	16	83	73			156