The 15th was unkind to Coetzee on Sunday as he made a triple-bogey seven there while he was in a share of lead in the final round of the DP World Tour’s Cazoo Open de France.
The South African was fresh off a birdie on 14 which had seen hom join the lead which was shared by Italian Guido Migliozzi and Rasmus Hojgaard of Denmark at that stage, but his saftety-first tactic of taking an iron off the tee for accuracy backfired when he had too much fade on it and it ended up in the water on the right. Then his chance at salvaging a miraculous par which would have kept him in things down the stretch evaporated as he dumped his third in the water left of the green.
The resultant triple-bogey put things out of reach for what could have been his sixth DP World Tour title, but, if truth be told, Migliozzi’s near-miraculous bogey-free round of nine-under-par 62 had done enough for the win even before that Coetzee slip-up.
The Italian made five birdies in a row around the turn from the sixth to reach 12-under and storm into contention. There were four more birdies to come, most impressively on the tough 18th, where his laser-like approach nearly went in. He made the birdie from six feet to seal the victory.
Coetzee finished on 11-under after making bogey on the 18th, five shots back for a share of fourth behind Rasmus Hojgaard who was second and Thomas Pieters of Belgium who was third.
Joburg Open champion Thriston Lawrence carded a closing one-under-par 70 to finish in a share of 20th on four-under. Zander Lombard had a level-par 71 to share 39th on one-under, and Hennie du Plessis slipped to a three-over 74 to finish on two-over in a share of 60th.
