Marcel Siem knows how to celebrate a big moment.
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For a while it seemed that no one wanted to win the Italian Open.
Sean Crocker got to 10 under par on the back nine Sunday but bogeyed No. 14 and split another way to send 9 under the section.
Shubhankar Sharma got to 11 under par on Sunday’s back nine but made a double bogey on No. 14 and a bogey on No. 16 to drop back to 8 under the division.
Jannik De Bruyn got to 11 under par on Sunday’s back nine but made bogeys on 14 and 18; he finished at 9 under.
Antoine Rozner reached 13 under par on Sunday’s back nine but played his final six holes in five over par; he wouldn’t contribute the last few holes, either.
Marcel Siem reached 13 under par, too. But then he won 11, 14, 15 and 17 and he, too, seemed to let the title he desired slip into his fingers.
Earlier, Northern Irishman Tom McKibbin had started the final round in the middle of the pack but put together a Sunday 65 to take the clubhouse lead at 10 under par. That was a good number, to be sure – but at the time it felt impossible. At the time he posted his score there were several players tied or ahead of him and DataGolf gave him a 0.1 percent chance of winning.
That changed slowly and suddenly. McKibbin watched from the clubhouse as his competition staggered, one by one, down. By the time Siem teed off on the 18th hole, he was one shot away, the only one with a chance of catching McKibbin – who was now three hours behind. And Siem needs an incredible amount of time just to force more holes.
He released.
Siem has long been among the game’s most demonstrative players, and when he holed a 22-footer for birdie on the 18th, hours of tension and frustration vanished. He burst into laughter, threw his visor down and shouted to the crowd.
He and McKibbin return to the tee on the par-4 18th. Both left for birdie but McKibbin missed and Siem repeated, this time from 10 feet, to end the tournament.
The win marked the latest milestone in the 43-year-old German’s rollercoaster career. He won his first DP World Tour event in 2004, more than 20 years ago. He was a touring player for years but lost his card after the 2021 season, played the Challenge Tour to get it back, lost his card again, came back through Q-School and completed his comeback with a win in 2023. Indian Open champion.
There was little to suggest this would be his week, either: Siem was just starting his fourth post-hip surgery and had completed the MC-MC-T37 three weeks earlier.
So he admitted after the round that this finish – his sixth victory on the European circuit – holds a special place in his golfing memory.
“Holing that putt on 18 was one of the coolest moments in golf for me and repeating it in the play-offs was great,” he said, in each round. “I love this game, I just love it and it’s great to work hard when you get awards like this now. I love life, I love golf, it couldn’t be better now.”
Siem held the lead early in Sunday’s round, and three early birdies put him in the lead. But after back-9 bogeys he was suddenly tied with McKibbin, a rising European star less than half his age. It’s not the first time these two have played each other; Last year McKibbin captured Siem at the Porsche European Open.
He is now 3-0 in his career.
It is suitable for a man who has the ability to do amazing things.
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