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Fasth triumphs in Munich

24/06/2007

Nicolas Fasth beat off a late challenge by home favourite Bernhard Langer to win the BMW International in Munich.

The Swede finished on 13 under par to win by two strokes and hold off veteran Langer and Portugal's Jose-Filipe Lima.

Fasth, 35, was three shots ahead at the turn but his tournament nearly ended in disaster after he double-bogeyed the tenth hole.

Langer, who was 11 strokes behind on Thursday, rolled back the years with a host of long-range putts including one from 40-feet to slice Fasth's lead.

But the German, who at one stage was one shot behind, could only par the 18th leaving Fasth to par the final hole to clinch his sixth European Tour victory.

Fasth paid tribute to Langer and expressed his relief at coming through in the latter stages.

"Yes, it's the sign of a true champion that you can have a disastrous first day and nearly win the tournament. He [Langer] must have had some real inspiration today – it was a very impressive performance," Fasth said.

I wasn't hitting enough fairways before, and I did that here. It meant I had a lot of birdie chances. Sinking that 15-footer on hole 15 for par was very important.

"It's just been wonderful. Today, it felt like it was my tournament to win or lose. I've played some amazing golf here, and I'm definitely going to be back to try and defend my title next year."

Langer, who was close to pulling out with a neck injury, said he was disappointed at missing out on becoming the tour's oldest winner.

"It was a great shame I had my injury on the first day or who knows what might have happened," the 50-year-old said.

"I was trying to make a charge and holed some putts but then I had a couple of bad breaks, but that's golf.

"Every once in a while the old swing shows up, the old talent shows, but unfortunately not often enough."

Denmark's Anders Hansen was among three players who took third spot on ten under while England's Simon Dyson finished on seven under.

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