Hansen surges to Cologne win

FINAL ROUND LEADERBOARD:
-17 S Hansen (Den)
-13 A Forsyth (Sco), P Archer (Eng)
-12 T Bjorn (Den), B Dredge (Wal)
Selected others:
-11 L Westwood (Eng), S Khan (Eng)
-10 Pl Lawrie (Sco)
-9 G McDowell (NI)

Two late eagles for Soren Hansen gave the Dane a four-shot victory in the Mercedes-Benz Championship on Sunday.

Hansen carded a five-under-par 67 in Cologne to finish on 17 under and claim his second career title.

England's Phillip Archer (68) and Scotland's Alastair Forsyth (70) shared second place at the no-cut event.

Hansen, 33, chipped in from the rough on the 13th hole green for his first eagle of the day and picked up another two shots just two holes later.

A steady performer since joining the European Tour in 1999, Hansen won the Irish Open in 2002 but had never previously produced the consistent performances of this season.

After two second places and a third in the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles a fortnight ago, today's win lifted him to seventh in the Order of Merit and second in the early Ryder Cup standings.

"Throughout the week I played tremendous, the best golf I've ever played," he said.

"I had a really good feeling coming into this event and I'm very proud to have beaten 77 of the best players in Europe."

Hansen and fellow Dane Bjorn shared the lead going into the final day and Bjorn briefly led after birdies at the first and second before a bogey on the fifth and double bogey at the next.

Two birdies took Hansen to the turn in 34 and he moved three clear of the field by chipping in from the edge of the green on the 13th for an eagle.

He then effectively sealed victory in style with another eagle on the 15th when his three-wood approach from 273 yards to the par five took a friendly bounce to skip round the edge of a bunker and rolled up to 12ft from the hole.

"I wouldn't say it's been a monkey on my back but I have been close a few times since 2002," added Hansen.

"In the past I have looked too much over my shoulder at what other people were doing but today I stuck with what I had and struck some good shots."

Forsyth was pleased with his share of second place after effectively being sacked by his caddie following an opening round of 76 which left him 15 shots off the pace.

"I never really got going early on so to finish second was a good result, a massive result after my first round," said the 31-year-old from Glasgow, joint third in the KLM Open in Holland three weeks ago.

"I dropped a couple of careless shots here and there and it looked like it was going to be a bad day, so to turn it round and shoot 70 was a good fightback.

"There are still things I can work on and do better but it's good to know my game can stand up to the pressure of coming down the stretch."

Archer tops the fledgling Ryder Cup standings after two events and continues to show marked improvement from his first few years on tour, when he finished 164th and 114th on the money list.

"I don't know why I'm playing so well," Archer said. "I kept my card three years ago for the first time and that gave me a lot of confidence going into last year.

"I played some good stuff then and once you start gaining experience out here you start settling down, you get to know people and the courses."

Source: BBC Sport