• Saint Omer Open, Round Four

Zions romps to his maiden tour title

Matthew Zions romped to victory © Getty Images

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Australian Matthew Zions cruised to his first ever European Tour win with victory at the Saint Omer Open, as his nearest challengers simply fell over during the final round on Sunday.

Starting the day with a three-shot advantage, Zions underlined his supremacy over the course of the week with a two-under par final round of 69, enough for an eight-under total and emphatic seven-shot victory.

The 32-year-old started steadily if unspectacularly as he dropped a solitary shot through seven holes, before extinguishing any lingering hopes his rivals may have harboured with two birdies to reach the turn one-under for the day.

Two birdies and a bogey followed on the back nine, but he successfully parred the final four holes of the tournament to clinch a straightforward victory.

"It feels like I'm dreaming," Zions said. "The last four holes I was wondering when I could start thinking about winning, and when would be too soon that it tempted fate. I had a lump in my throat a couple of times.

"This is a huge day, it's hard to believe. My ball striking was great all week and I hardly missed any greens. We're not out here just to collect the cheque. It was nice to feel those butterflies this morning and feel the adrenaline as I was coming down the stretch. That's why we play.

"If I was one or two ahead I might've been more nervous. But I tried to treat it like any other round, and on the second I hit a beautiful four iron 220 yards to about 20 feet, so that settled me a lot. I knew it would be tough for the other guys to catch me with low scores in these conditions, so I just tried to be sensible."

Sweden's Peter Gustafsson shared second place at one-under after a final round 69, alongside Scotland's Craig Lee and England's Daniel Denison - who started the day in contention but carded rounds of 72 and 73 respectively to let Zions run away from them.

Lee Slattery finished in a tie for fifth at level par for the tournament after a final round 70, while Jamie Elson and Scot Alastair Forsyth finished just outside the top ten at one-over.

In difficult conditions on the final day, the English pair of Chris Lloyd and David Dixon shared low round honours, firing matching 68s to climb 27 places to finish in a tie for 17th at two-over.

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