Dylan Frittelli shot a final-round seven-under-par 64 to end at 20-under-par in a tie for third place at the Challenge Tour’s Fred Olsen Challenge de Espana on Sunday.
The 26-year-old produced a flawless round that got going on the second hole with a birdie which he followed up with an eagle at the third. The Country Club Johannesburg member rolled in further birdies at the sixth and ninth holes to go out in 31 strokes.
A challenge for the victory stumbled on the back nine as the University of Texas alumni could only find birdies at the 17th and 18th after parring the previous seven holes. He came home in 33 strokes and set the early clubhouse lead, it ended up being four shots off the pace by the end of play.
This result is Frittelli’s sixth top-five finish of his season and it is surely a matter of time before he breaks his winless drought and captures his first title since winning the 2013 Karnten Golf Open on the Challenge Tour.
The winner, in the end, was France’s Adrien Saddier who produced a final-round eight-under-par 63. He blitzed through his front nine in 29 strokes that included five birdies and an eagle. The homeward stretch for the 24-year-old only yielded two birdies and a dropped a shot at the 15th. He prevailed by three shots over Italy’s Nicolo Ravano to rise 282 places in the world rankings.
Ravano finished with a final round four-under-par 67 that was built around a good back nine that included four birdies and no dropped shots. He will remember the tournament for his Friday round when he went around the Tecina Golf Club layout in a blistering 12-under-par 59, that included no fewer than 10 birdies and a chip-in eagle on the 18th.
South Africa’s Dean Burmester finished in a tie for 25th at 16-under-par, while fellow countryman Michael Palmer finished in a share for 65th place at six-under-par.
