Shanghai, China (SportsNetwork.com) - Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano double bogeyed his final hole on Sunday, but was still able to hang on for a 1-stroke victory at the BMW Masters.
Fernandez-Castano posted a 4-under 68 during his final round at Lake Malaren Golf Club to claim his seventh career win on the European Tour at 11-under-par 277.
"I knew it wasn't going to be an easy round, especially the way I started. I started hitting the ball pretty bad," Fernandez-Castano said. "But my caddie kept me cool and told me how good I had been hitting the ball through the week and I played fantastic after that."
Francesco Molinari fired an 8-under 64 to earn a share of second place with Thongchai Jaidee (66) at 10-under 278.
Luke Guthrie (71) finished alone in fourth at 9-under, while Thomas Bjorn (66), Peter Uihlein (67) and Pablo Larrazabal (68) tied for fifth at minus-8.
Peter Hanson shot the low round of the day with a 9-under 63 to vault into a share of eighth place at 7-under 281. He was joined by Scott Jamieson (70), Paul Casey (70) and Rafael Cabrera-Bello (73).
Guthrie and Cabrera-Bello shared the third-round lead at 8-under, but both bogeyed the first on Sunday to fall into a tie with Gregory Bourdy and Fernandez-Castano.
Cabrera-Bello bounced back with a birdie at the second to regain the outright lead, but then found the water twice at the third en route to a double-bogey 7 to fall to minus-6, handing first place to Jamieson, Bourdy, Guthrie and Fernandez-Castano.
Jamieson bogeyed the fifth to fall out of first and was replaced by Cabrera- Bello, who continued his up-and-down start with a birdie at the fourth.
Bourdy then bogeyed the fifth to leave Guthrie, Fernandez-Castano and Cabrera- Bello in first at 7-under.
Casey joined the group with a birdie at the eighth to make it a four-way tie before Fernandez-Castano birdied the seventh to claim the outright lead at minus-8.
Fernandez-Castano made it two in a row at the eighth to grab a 2-stroke lead, and later collected another birdie at the 11th to reach 10-under.
Molinari, meanwhile, had started to make his run up the leaderboard by recording four birdies and a bogey over his first 11 holes to move to 5-under.
After a bogey at the 12th seemed to halt his momentum, he caught fire with an eagle at the 13th that he followed with four straight birdies to meet Fernandez-Castano atop the leaderboard at 10-under.
"I was quite surprised because I haven't played the back nine very well all week," Molinari said about his strong stretch. "Sometimes you need a bit of luck in this game and I got that today then got on a bit of a roll."
He would par his final hole to remain there, and Fernandez-Castano pulled back ahead with a birdie at the 13th.
He added two more birdies at the 15th and 17th, chipping in from off the green at the 17th to move three clear of Molinari at 13-under. Those shots would prove necessary, as Fernandez-Castano found a pair of bunkers at the last en route to a double bogey and a 1-stroke victory.
"On the last, I played too conservative and it was a fighting six at the end for sure," said Fernandez-Castano.
NOTES: Fernandez-Castano is the first player to win with a double bogey at the last since Lee Slattery at 2011 Madrid Masters ... Fernandez-Castano has now won in seven of his nine European Tour seasons. He won every year between 2005-2008 and then again between 2011-2013 ... This event was the opener of the inaugural Race to Dubai Final Series, which is a four-event competition similar to the season-ending FedEx Cup on the PGA Tour.
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