| -14 R Hisatsune (Jpn); -12 J Smith (Eng), J Winther (Den); -11 R Hojgaard (Den) |
| Selected: -9 E Ferguson (Sco); -8 C Hill (Sco); -7 N Kimsey (Eng), D Law (Sco) |
| Final leaderboard |
Jordan Smith squandered a six-shot lead in Sunday’s final round of the French Open as Ryo Hisatsune won the title.
Englishman Smith had been the overnight leader with Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson, and birdied the first and second holes.
But Smith, 30, went on to card a one-over-par 72 – his worst score of the tournament – to finish at 12 under.
Japan’s Hisatsune made five birdies on the back nine as he shot 66 to reach 14 under, ahead of Smith and Denmark’s Jeff Winther who tied for second place.
Ferguson fell out of contention after a closing 76 that featured double bogeys at the opening two holes.
Hisatsune, 21, became only the third Japanese golfer to win on the European Tour, after Isao Aoki in 1983 and Hideki Matsuyama, who won for the first time in 2016.
“I had confidence today and also a lot of luck. I didn’t think of the result on the back nine, just concentrating on my golf,” said Hisatsune.
The victory came at Le Golf National, the venue for the Paris 2024 Olympic golf tournament.
“I’m flying back to Japan on Monday,” Hisatsune said. “I might upgrade to business class now.”
