By ,
Published May 03, 2016
Barcelona, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - James Morrison shot a 3-under 69 in Sunday's final round and the Englishman went on to win by four shots at the Open de Espana.
Morrison, who shared the third-round lead with David Howell, finished the week at 10-under-par 278. It is Morrison's second victory on the European Tour and first since the 2010 Madeira Islands Open.
"It feels amazing," Morrison said. "It's been five years and I've had a lot of chances between then and now to win and haven't done it, but I drew on all my experience and got over the line."
Defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez holed out for eagle in his round and shot a 5-under 67. He tied for second at 6-under 282 with Howell (73), second- round leader Edouard Espana (69) and 2012 champion Francesco Molinari (71).
Emiliano Grillo finished alone in sixth at minus-5 following a 1-under 71 at Real Club de Golf El Prat.
Morrison was flawless en route to victory, while his playing partner and five- time European Tour winner Howell made too many mistakes early on in his round.
The duo remained deadlocked through the first four holes as each of them made pars, but Morrison took the outright lead when he drained his first birdie at the par-4 fifth.
Morrison closed out his front nine with a trio of pars from No. 6 and his second birdie at No. 9. At the same time, Howell fell well off the pace when he made bogeys on six and 11 to go along with a double-bogey on nine.
It was a rather easy finish for Morrison. After making the turn with a 2-shot lead, he coasted with eight straight pars from No. 10 before rolling in a birdie putt from about 15 feet at the par-5 last to complete his bogey-free round and win by four shots.
"The game plan was to stick to my process. I know it's cliche, but it's true," said Morrison. "In years past when I haven't done it it's been too much looking at leaderboards and outside influences, and today even down to that last putt, I wanted to hole that putt badly and stuck to my process all day long and executed, which feels amazing."
Howell had a strong finish that saw him end in a tie for second, but it was not nearly enough. Birdies at 14, 15 and 18 pushed the Englishman up to minus-6 at the end of the day.
Jimenez traded a birdie at two for a bogey at three and then holed out from 158 yards at the par-4 fifth for eagle. That got the Spaniard going as he ended up making four more birdies and one bogey to close his round.
Espana rebounded from his tough third round 76 with five birdies and two bogeys on his day, while Molinari mixed in five birdies and four bogeys.
NOTES: Prior to this week, Morrison had missed the cut in five of his last eight starts ... Morrison played in 146 European Tour events since his last victory in 2010. He won the Madeira Islands Open his rookie year ... Howell finished alone in second at his last event, the China Open. He also tied for second at the Joburg Open this season and tied for fourth at the Shenzhen International ... With the win, Morrison earned 250,000 euros ... The European Tour is in Surrey, England next week for the BMW PGA Championship, where Rory McIlroy won by a shot last year.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/morrison-wins-by-4-in-spain