Happy birthday to Danny Willett.
The 34-year-old Englishman celebrated another trip around the sun in style with a two-stroke victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Sunday. Willett shot a 4-under 68 and finished 18-under par overall to defeat fellow countryman Tyrrell Hatton (67) and Sweden’s Joakim Lagergren (66).
“It’s magical,” Willett said. “On British soil with everyone here, it’s been a great week. It’s been a couple of years of average stuff again. I seem to do this a lot actually, go up and down.”
The former Masters champion rose again, adding a victory at the Old Course at St. Andrews to previous titles at Augusta National Golf Club, Wentworth and Crans-sur-Sierre among his eight career titles.
Willett had endured a challenging year, failing to finish in the top 10 in his first 11 events on the European Tour as he dealt with COVID-19 and ailments ranging from wisdom teeth to appendicitis and a hernia.
The Dunhill Links is played over three storied courses in Scotland – at St. Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie — from Thursday to Saturday with the final round returning to the Old Course, where Willett has long excelled. He is now 77-under par for his career there, including finishing second at this event in 2010 and placing sixth at the British Open at St. Andrews in 2015. He won the Dunhill Link’s 2017 team title alongside caddie Jonathan Smart, who returned to the bag for him this week.
“It’s a good one”@Danny_Willett was visibly holding back the emotion after his win.#DunhillLinks pic.twitter.com/5UKnaeqL3Q
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) October 3, 2021
Willett entered the final round with a three-stroke lead, but he was caught by Richard Bland, who finished tied for fourth with Shane Lowry, temporarily. Hatton, a two-time champion of the event, rallied with a 67 to finish tied for second a week after playing in the Ryder Cup. But Willett wouldn’t budge, finishing with a string of pars to seal the deal.
“It made me focus a little bit more,” Willett said of having challengers hot on his heels.
It was his first victory since the 2019 BMW PGA Championship, and should lift him back into the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
“We’ve been working hard, people don’t see it behind the scenes,” Willett said. “Obviously my wife does and other people do but it’s a good one.”
Willett’s work ethic has never been questioned. During the pandemic, he moved to Florida just down the street from his swing instructor Sean Foley so that they could work on retooling his game.
“The guy is a beast,” Foley said. “If you ask him to do something 100 times, he’ll do it 500 times because to him that’s 400 times better.”
Willet became the first player to win a European Tour event on their birthday since Ernie Els at the 2004 HSBC World Match Play Championship. The birthday boy said he wouldn’t have time to celebrate the occasion or his victory properly as he was catching a flight to Las Vegas for next week’s PGA Tour event. When an interviewer referenced his birthday, Willett smiled widely and cracked, “Just don’t tell people how old I am.”