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Wolverhampton golfer Aaron Rai wins first European Tour title

Aaron Rai has admitted his first ever European Tour victory hasn’t quite sunk in yet.

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The 23-year-old from Wolverhampton held off fellow Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick to secure an impressive one-shot victory at the Honk Kong Open this weekend.

It earned him just over a quarter of a million pounds in prize money, and cemented his place as one of golf’s up-and-coming stars.

"It's incredible,” said Rai. “It definitely hasn't sunk in just yet. I'll probably need a few days for that to happen.

"It's incredible to win on any Tour, let alone The European Tour and let alone the Hong Kong Open.

“It's an incredible course, incredible event, very well supported. The crowds have been amazing. I'm just very grateful.”

Rai broke the course record in the second round with a nine-under-par 61, and went into the final day with a six-shot lead.

But five-time European Tour winner Fitzpatrick had cut that lead to just one shot with seven birdies in his first 16 holes to set up a tense finale.

Fitzpatrick then bogeyed the 17th to give Rai a two-shot cushion with one hole remaining, and despite carding a bogey at the last, the former Wolverhampton Grammar School pupil closed on 17 under par with a final round of 69 to take the title.

"Matt played incredibly all day,” said Rai. “It was tough but again, I really just tried to play the course as much as possible, rather than Matt, or anyone else who was playing well.

"I luckily managed to do that for most of the way around. It's tough considering the situation but I'm very pleased.”

Rai won three Challenge Tour events last year but this is his first European Tour title at just his 46th appearance.

It opens up the 2019 Race to Dubai in stunning style, and the golfer raised in Perton said the pressure on the final round felt different to anything else he has experienced.

“It felt a little bit different,” he admitted. “It's nice having wins in the past which help you kind of in what expect in a sense, but it did feel a little bit different today in terms of just how big it is and the attention of people.

“Also playing with two real world class players in Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick.

“I'll have to re-evaluate myself before I can give you a good answer of what I learned, but I think just staying even more patient, really getting further into your own game, compared to just being aware of what the other guys are doing.

“I think the more you play against world class players like that, you kind of expect that they will never make it easy.”

Sheffield-born Fitzpatrick's sensational 64 saw him finish alone in second on 16 under par.

"Obviously it was disappointing on the 17th,” he said. “Such a simple bogey. But I gave it a good go. It was always going to be tough to beat him.

"The last two days he's been very solid and not given anything away, which made my life more difficult."