Callum Shinkwin clinches Open spot to ease pain of play-off defeat

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John Huggan17 July 2017

In years to come, the record book will tell the world that Rafa Cabrera-Bello won the 2017 Aberdeen Asset Scottish Open Championship.

It will also reveal that the 33-year old Spaniard closed with the low round of the week, an eight-under par 64 at the Dundonald Links, before a birdie at the first hole of a play-off proved enough to defeat the former English Amateur champion Callum Shinkwin.

Not found on those pages, however, will be the real story of this $7m Rolex Series event. Playing the 586-yard par-five final hole in regulation play, Shinkwin missed the putting surface to the left with his approach, a bunker standing between his ball and the flag. The lie was not great and neither was the resulting chip, which came up short of the green.

His next shot, a putt, ground to a halt four-feet from the cup. And the putt for what would have been the Watford player’s maiden win on the European Tour stopped one-inch short. Agonisingly too, it was his first bogey of the final day.

“On the 18th I hit a great second shot in and finished in a divot on a downslope,” Shinkwin said. “I had no shot, really. But it’s all a learning curve. Any time you win, you need luck on your side. It wasn’t there for me. But it’s been a very good week. End of the day, I am more than happy to finish second even if the win was on my mind. It just didn’t happen.”

Still, there was some consolation for the runner-up amidst his obvious disappointment. Along with Matthieu Pavon of France and Australian Andrew Dodt, Shinkwin claimed one of the three last-minute exemptions into this week’s Open Championship at Royal Birkdale.

But it is Cabrera-Bello who will arrive at the Southport links armed with the biggest boost in confidence after what was his first victory on the European Tour in more than five years.

“I’ve won before and I have been up there so many, many times, but things have not really worked out for myself,” he said. “I was starting to feel a little pressure every time I was up there contending. So I’m really, really happy how I played today. In the play-off I hit two great shots and birdie was enough. I think I was overdue.”

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