Home favourite Joost Luiten fires stunning 63 to capture KLM Open

Local favourite Joost Luiten won the KLM Open for the second time after a brilliant course-record equalling 63 at The Dutch in Spijk.

Ireland's Paul Dunne shot a third consecutive round in the 60s – a 69 – to finish nine under and tied 16th. That earned the Greystones player a cheque for €23,805 and took his winnings for the season to €211,618. With that he jumps up to 102nd in the Race to Dubai standings with six tournaments to go before the final series. The top 110 players automatically retain their playing status for next season.

The 30-year-old Luiten entered the final day three shots behind overnight leader Scott Hend but while the Australian stumbled to a closing 73, Luiten fired 10 birdies and two bogeys to get to 19 under and secure a three-shot victory over Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger.

Hend had still held the lead after eight holes but two double-bogeys after finding the water saw his chances evaporate as the tournament developed into a straight shootout between Luiten and Wiesbeger.

Luiten held a two-shot lead after a birdieing the 10th and 11th but a brilliant up-and-down on the 15th moved Wiesberger ahead in a nip-and-tuck contest.

A first bogey of the day on the 17th stalled the 30-year-old’s momentum, however, and three birdies in his last five holes gave 2013 champion Luiten an eventually comfortable victory.

“The first one was special but this one is very special,” he said. “To have the Dutch people behind me all week and to be able to stand here with the trophy in my hands is very special.

“It was one of those days where everything I looked at went in the hole. People talk about the zone and I think I was in it today. I missed one shot when I went in the water on 13 but besides that I didn’t do much wrong.

“These are the kind of days that make it all worth getting out of bed for.”

South Korea’s Byeong-hun An closed with a 65 to sit at 13 under, a shot clear of Hend, English duo Ben Evans and David Horsey, and Spaniard Alejandro Canizares.

Chris Hanson was in the group at 11 under, a shot clear of fellow Englishmen Tommy Fleetwood and Simon Khan, and Scotland’s Scott Jamieson.