After all the weather delays at the Belfry, getting the Husqvarna British Masters through 72 holes was quite an accomplishment. Hats off to tournament officials and greenkeepers.
They packed so much into the final day, the DP World Tour will probably get a hefty bill for excess baggage.
The final group, for instance, shoehorned 31 holes into an exhausting Sunday as Saturday’s third round spilled over.
In fact, the closing 18 holes began before round three had even finished as the field tried to get home and dry ahead of predicted storms in the area later in the afternoon. There was no redraw either for the closing circuit, with speed being the order of the day
This golfing marathon became a sprint for the line. Joe Dean certainly got a shift on as
he surged up the order to claim his maiden victory on the DP World Tour in thrilling style.
You half expected his brilliant nine-under 63 over the Brabazon course to be accompanied by a blast of the William Tell Overture as the Yorkshireman got galloping like the Lone Ranger.
Dean’s rousing round set the clubhouse target of 14-under but, with the last groups just into their back nine at that point, the 32-year-old had to twiddle his thumbs for over an hour-and-a-half in the clubhouse and see if he would be caught.
Given all the hanging about that Dean and the rest of the field had already endured during a stop-start, weather-disrupted week, he wouldn’t have been bothered about that.
The wait was worth it. In the end, Dean’s final flourish gave him a three-shot win over Jacob Skov Olesen, Niklas Norgaard, Nacho Elvira and Daniel Hillier.
There were plenty in with a chance, and with plenty of holes to play too, but nobody could match Dean’s display of poise, precision and purpose.
A couple of years ago, Dean was driving a supermarket delivery van to help fund his maiden season on the DP World Tour.
Yesterday, he joined a celebrated British Masters roll of honor which includes the likes of Peter Thomson, Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo and Sandy Lyle.
He also shoved a check for around $600,000 into his pocket. That should buy a few messages.
“I'll be honest, winning wasn’t anywhere in my thoughts,” said Dean, who had his wife, Emily, acting as his caddie.
“I was just trying to get inside the top 15 to get enough points to keep me safe for next year.
“All those painful hours and all the work I put in to this has finally led to something.
“Today was one of the rare days where everything just felt right and the putts were dropping. It was almost like I couldn't do anything wrong.”
Dean had returned early in the morning to complete the closing four holes of the third round.
He birdied two of them in a 71, but he was still seven shots behind 54-hole leader Hillier, who was aiming for a second British Masters win after success at the Belfry in 2023.
Dean, who earned his place in July’s Open by winning the Last Chance Qualifying shoot-out at Birkdale, got cracking with four birdies in his first six holes of the closing round and he made five more gains coming home to set a sturdy standard.
A raft of players were still very much in the mix, but Hillier drifted away with a 73 while Olesen and the 2024 champion, Norgaard, couldn’t make up the leeway.
Tom McKibben, the LIV golfer from Northern Ireland, saw his hopes vanish with a triple-bogey on the seventh while Fabrizio Zannotti’s late push hit the buffers – or the water to be more precise – when he racked up his own triple-bogey on the 18th.
Marco Penge, meanwhile, had been two shots clear at one point but he stuttered and stumbled through the back nine as a long day began to take a toll.
Penge, playing in the final group, saw his fading hopes finally extinguished on the 17th when he found the trees and made a bogey before leaking another shot on the last.
He eventually signed for a 72 and slithered back into a share of sixth on 10-under. Dean’s wait was over.
“Today made up for a lot of bad days and a lot of stress and a lot of anxiety,” he said of some of his earlier trials on tour.
On the home front, Bearsden’s Ewen Ferguson closed with a 70 for eight-under and shared 15th spot.
The 30-year-old had got himself into the mix with a birdie-eagle salvo early on but couldn’t make any more advances as the charging Dean stole the show.
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: How a former delivery driver went on to win the British Masters
