Andrea Pavan is starting to live up to the hype he generated when he was a star at Texas A&M decade ago. An Italian, Pavan earned his second European Tour victory in the space of year when he outlasted England’s Matt Fitzpatrick in a playoff to win the $2.2 million BMW International Open in Munich, Germany on Sunday.
Pavan, 30, began the final round 4 shots off Jordan Smith’s lead, but returned a 6-under 66 to reach 15 under and post a target. Fitzpatrick matched that total to get into a playoff. The pair halved the first extra hole, Golfclub Munchen Eichenried’s par-5, 18th, but Pavan birdied the hole the second time around to earn his second European Tour victory following last year’s D+D Real Czech Masters.
“It’s amazing,” Pavan said. “I thought I had a chance starting the day. I was playing very well coming into the week.”
Pavan played on the 2009 Texas A&M NCAA championship team but took a long time to settle into European Tour life. He’s made six trips to the European Tour Qualifying School, the last in 2017.
“Two years ago at this moment I was really struggling. I can’t thank enough my coach, my caddie, my family, my wife – it’s really amazing.”
SCORES: European Tour
Pavan earned $380,000 to move to 32nd on the Race to Dubai. Fitzpatrick picked up $253,000 and is now 12th on the rankings. Fitzpatrick was looking for his sixth European Tour victory, and probably should have walked off with the first-place prize.
A 24-year-old 2016 Ryder Cup player, Fitzpatrick three-putted the driveable par-4, 16th for par and bogeyed the par-3 17th after finding sand off the tee. He then hit a 3-wood into the 18th green and made birdie to get into the playoff.
“I’m obviously disappointed,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s just been a tough season so far, really, not holing the putts. I’ve been playing well, that showed coming here and getting into a play-off. It’s a good week overall but disappointed not to top it off.”
Former Vanderbilt player Matthias Schwab finished in a seven-way tie for third place on 13-under, 2 shots back, to earn his fourth top 10 of the season. Smith, defending champion Matt Wallace, Edoardo Molinari, South Africa’s Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Spaniards Alvaro Quiros and Rafa Cabrera Bello joined Schwab in third place.
