Charl Schwartzel won by a huge margin for the second week running as the South African coasted to a comprehensive 12 shot victory in the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek.
A winner by 11 shots in Thailand last Sunday, the talk at the start of the day was not whether the 28 year old would win an eighth European Tour title, but if he could better Tiger Woods’ 15-shot winning margin at the 2000 US Open Championship in doing so. That remains the largest in European Tour history.
A third straight 64 would have seen last year’s Masters Tournament champion equal Ernie Els’ record 29 under par total, but as it was Schwartzel settled for a three under par 69 and 24 under total on a final day disrupted by thunderstorms.
It completed a fantastic finish to 2012 for Schwartzel, who birdied the last to register the third biggest winning margin in European Tour history.
He finished the Thailand Golf Championship 25 under, and for the past five weeks – they started with finishes of fifth, third and second – he is a staggering 84 under.
“It’s always been a special place for me,” he said. “This is where I can almost say my career started and it’s always stayed close to my heart.
“It’s nice to have continued my form from last week. I was saying a month and a half ago it’s been a pretty disappointing year.
“Slowly and surely I started to swing the club a lot better, back to how I did when I won The Masters, and I actually got excited to play again.
“It started at the SA Open and from there got better and better. It’s been a pretty good year now!”
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