A week ago, DP World Tour golfer Yurav Premlall missed the cut in the Turkish Airlines Open by nine shots. Fast-forward to this Sunday, and his performance looks very different as the South African stunned the golf world with a 14-shot win at the Catalunya Championship.
Golf is a fickle game, but the performance the 22-year-old put together in Spain for his maiden victory on the European circuit is stunning on every level imaginable. We're talking about a player who began the week without a top-30 finish in eight starts this season turning around and finishing just one off the all-time biggest margin of victory set by Tiger Woods at the 2000 U.S. Open.
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Premlall, who entered the event ranked No. 598 in the Official World Golf Ranking, began the week with a 2-under round of 70 on Thursday. More than respectable given he had missed four out of eight cuts this season, but it still left him six shots back with 54 holes to play.
Then came Friday, when it appears Premlall woke up a completely new man.
He carded a second round score of 64, which he then followed with a 63 on Saturday to enter Sunday's final round five shots clear of the chasing pack.
Any player, especially one who has yet to find the winner's circle, would sign up for a five-shot cushion with 18 holes to play. Still, it's also a unique spot that most players have never experienced at the professional level. So while many would have expected Premlall to take at least a half-step back and make things somewhat interesting on Sunday, that simply did not happen.
The South African made birdie on six of his opening nine holes, picked up another four birdies down the stretch, and managed to post his second consecutive round of 63 to secure the insanely impressive 14-shot victory at 28-under par.
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"No words," Premlall said after securing victory. "I've worked so hard to get into this position and it's so rewarding to finally see the results of it. I mean, the last eight, nine months have been such a struggle just to build myself onto a platform where I know I could give myself a chance to win and to end up obviously in this position. I'm just so grateful so it's a dream come true."
With his back-to-back rounds of 9-under across the weekend, Premlall could have theoretically skipped the first two rounds of the tournament and still won by four shots.
Fellow South African Shaun Norris finished in solo second.
