Irishman Des Smyth has won his fourth European Senior Tour title at the Van Lanschot Senior Open, beating Australian Peter Fowler and American Tim Trielen by two shots.

Smyth started the final day four shots behind overnight leaders Fowler and Trielen, and went even further behind after a three putt bogey on the 2nd.

On the fourth he started his fight to close in on the leaders with a birdie, followed by an eagle on the 5th, another birdie on the 9th and then his second eagle of the day on the 10th. He then made successive birdies from the 13th to the 16th, but dropped a shot on the 17th with a bogey. He recovered this on the 18th with another birdie to finish his final round on 65

In the group behind Fowler knew that only an eagle on the final hole would force a play-off with Smyth, but he could only manage par.

Smyth attributed his play to Christy O’Connor Jnr, who Smyth believes helped transform his game after he notice his alignment was out of form

“So I’m absolutely delighted, and I have to thank Christy for giving me a lesson last week. My set-up was out of sync, because my right shoulder was out of position. I worked all week getting my hips and my shoulders on the same plane, and it paid off spectacularly today. So I’ll be buying him a few pints of Guinness when next we meet, that’s for sure!”  

Forgan of St Andrews had two staff players in participating in the tournament. Former masters champion Ian Woosnam finished tied 16th with four other golfers, while D J Russell finished tied in 21st place.

Woosnam’s result means that he now moves into fourth position in the Senior Tour Order of merit: his highest position yet this season.

Both DJ and Woosnam were once again using their Forgan custom fitted golf clubs, which are designed to each golfer’s specifications.