Raphael Jacquelin claimed his second European Tour title with a two-stroke victory in the BMW Asian Open at Tomson Shanghai Pudong Golf Club on Sunday, while Australian Scott Hend finished equal third. Jacquelin, who had lead the field from start to finish, shot a final round of 73 to finish ahead of Dane Soren Kjeldsen, with Hend finishing in a tie for third with Simon Yates. Leading by one at the start of the day, Jaquelin tightened his grip on the title after three birdies on the front nine saw the Frenchman move to 14-under-par, four strokes ahead of Kjeldsen. But as the forecasted rain started to fall on the back nine and scoring proved a challenge, bogeys at the 13th, 14th, 17th and 18th saw the Frenchman eventually triumph but by a much smaller margin than had looked likely at one stage. Hend was at 10-under-par after 13 holes, but a double bogey at the tough par three 14th, and a bogey at the 16th dropped the Australian back down the leaderboard. “When I had a chance to put some pressure on him, I hit a shot on the par three and it got caught in a wind gust and the ball floated up and dropped into the water. I actually hit a good shot there,” Hend told europeantour.com. “I hit some good shots and didn&apost make birdies when I could have and then when I made mistakes, I was penalised for it and made bogey. It was unfortunate.” Colin Montgomerie&aposs bid fell apart on the final day as a bogey at the 10th and double-bogey at the 12th saw the Scot plummet down the leaderboard after he reached the turn in 38 and he eventually finished on three-under-par after a disappointing round of 77. Ernie Els suffered trouble on the greens as the South African failed to produce a final day charge up the field, eventually completing a round of 72 to remain six-under. Graeme McDowell picked up early birdies at the second, seventh and ninth holes to go out in 33, but dropped shots at the 12th and the last saw the Northern Irishman pegged back to five-under-par after carding a 71. Simon Dyson also suffered a poor finish to his final 18 holes as consecutive bogeys at the last two holes saw the 29-year-old finish the tournament at four-under-par, tied with Australian Kane Webber who carded a closing round of 71. A further stroke adrift at three-under-par was fellow Australians Peter O&aposMalley and Scott Barr who both fired final rounds of 72. Final scores at the Asian Open: (par 72) -10: Raphael Jacquelin 66 69 70 73 -8: Soren Kjeldsen 67 72 68 73 -7: Simon Yates 74 69 64 74, Scott Hend (Australia) 69 70 67 75 -6: Markus Brier 71 69 68 74, Sung-man Lee 68 70 71 73, Ernie Els 71 71 68 72, Richard Sterne 70 74 69 69 -5: Graeme McDowell 73 70 69 71 -4: Kane Webber (Australia) 71 73 69 71, Andrew McLardy 72 70 67 75, Miguel Angel Jimenez 70 69 72 73, Simon Dyson 70 70 70 74, Joakim Backstrom 70 69 68 77 -3: Peter O&aposMalley (Australia) 73 72 68 72, Retief Goosen 71 74 69 71, Colin Montgomerie 69 70 69 77, Scott Barr (Australia) 71 70 72 72 Also -2: Adam Blyth (Australia) 71 73 67 75, David Bransdon (Australia) 76 68 68 74, Tony Carolan(Australia) 69 74 69 74 -1: Matthew Millar (Australia) 73 70 71 73 +1: Brett Rumford (Australia) 75 69 75 70 +3: Adam Le Vesconte (Australia) 72 71 72 76 +7: Marcus Both (Australia) 71 74 74 76 +9: Gavin Flint (Australia) 68 73 76 80
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