Peter Uihlein claimed his second International Series win of the year on the Asian Tour, holding off the challenge of fellow LIV golfers Charl Schwartzel and Louis Oosthuizen to ease home by five at Doha Golf Club in Qatar.
The Range Goats GC player began the final round one ahead of fellow American Zach Bauchou at the top of the leaderboard, with Schwartzel six off the lead and Oosthuizen five.
It was a relatively slow start for Uihlein, who, after making par on the opening two holes, suffered his first bogey of the day on the par 4 third. However, by the turn he had recovered well thanks to back-to-back birdies on the sixth and seventh.
For the man closest to Uihlein on the leaderboard at the start of the day, Bauchou, it was an even more unassured opening thanks to a costly double bogey on the par 3 third. That was a setback he failed to recover from, with bogeys at the fifth and ninth meaning the one-shot gap to Uihlein had become six at the turn. His agony was compounded by successive bogeys on the 14th and 15th to leave his hopes of a maiden professional win in tatters.
Elsewhere, Schwartzel and Oosthuizen were showing their class. Schwartzel, in particular, got off to a flying start with an eagle on the opening hole followed by a birdie. However, ultimately, that gap of six proved too much despite three more birdies and just one bogey in his round of 68. As for Oosthuizen, after a solid start with birdies on the first and ninth, he was dogged by an inconsistent back nine featuring two birdies and three bogeys.
Charl Schwartzel finished runner-up in Qatar
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With those immediately beneath him faltering, Uihlein just needed to remain consistent, and that’s exactly what he did. Eight successive pars followed his birdie on the seventh, and he finished with a flourish, with further birdies on the 16th and 18th.
That meant what had been a tight affair at the start of the day ended with a five-shot win for Uihlein on 16-under. Schwartzel was the man to finish runner-up, while Oosthuizen finished seven behind the winner, level with Filipino Tabuena Miguel. It was Uihlein’s second International Series success of the season after his win in August’s elevated event in England.
Other LIV golfers to finish in the top 10 were Dean Burmester, Anirban Lahiri, Eugenio Chacarra and Kieran Vincent.
The man who began the tournament top of the International Series standings and in pole position for a LIV Golf card, John Catlin, finished T19, and Uihlein has now overtaken him at the summit with just one more of the events to come this year.
John Catlin is no longer the leader in the International Series standings
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That could prove significant as Catlin, who had been the long-term leader, is currently a reserve and with Uihlein already on LIV Golf, if he remains on top of the standings after next week’s Saudi International, no one will earn a contract on the circuit via that route.
Afterwards, Uihlein said: “I feel like my game is trending, it’s just getting better. Like stuff I’ve been working on even before, all that stuff feels like it’s kind of getting easier under the gun, which was nice. But yeah, it’s 1,000 points to the winner next week so it’s obviously all still up in the air.”
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