Teenage Japanese golf star Ryo Ishikawa has booked his place at this year's Open Championship by winning the Mizuno Open men's tournament.
The 17-year-old's victory hopes looked to be over when he suffered the ignominy of carding a nine at the 12th on the final day.
However, he demonstrated great tenacity to claw back some shots in the closing stages and finished with a 13-under-par four-round total of 275, three shots ahead of runner up David Smail, of New Zealand.
The victory represents the third title of Ishikawa's career and earns him a place at The Open at Turnberry next month, where he will be joined by fellow Japanese golfers Tomohiro Kondo, Kenichi Kuboya, Yuta Ikeda and Koumei Oda.
After the round, Ishikawa said he was "thrilled" to have won and expressed his excitement about participating in the Turnberry tournament.
Ishikawa shot to fame in 2007 when at the age of 15 he became the youngest player ever to win a professional Japanese golf tournament.
Written by Graham McPherson
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