South African Yurav Premlall walked off Real Club de Golf El Prat on Sunday with a maiden DP World Tour title, a 28-under-par scorecard, and a piece of tour history previously held by Tiger Woods.
Premlall, 22, closed his romp at the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship with a 10-birdie 63 to finish 14 shots clear of Italy's Stefano Mazzoli, the largest winning margin in DP World Tour history. His weekend rounds of 64 and 63, after an opening 70, blew the field apart on a course that produced low scoring all week.
"No words. I've worked so hard to get into this position and it's so rewarding to finally see the results of it," Premlall said in his greenside interview. "The last eight or nine months have been such a struggle just to build myself onto a platform where I know I could give myself a chance to win. I'm just so grateful. It's a dream come true."
The 14-shot margin was confirmed during the broadcast as the new tour record, with Sky Sports' on-course interviewer telling Premlall directly that he had bettered Tiger Woods's mark for the largest winning margin in DP World Tour history. The previous record had stood for more than two decades, set during Woods's dominant European Tour appearances in the early 2000s.
Premlall said the moment he started enjoying the round was the moment he was confident the result was beyond doubt.
"When that putt went in. I had a goal today and that was to just execute every shot till that final putt goes in no matter what the result was," Premlall said. "I can't give myself enough credit today. And I'm not really a person to say that, but it was probably the most complete performance I've ever put through just purely because of how I executed my process today."
"The fans, you guys have been so great this whole week," Premlall said. "Obviously with the tribute to Seve, this week in Spain has been one to remember. Maybe not my dad but I'll start with my mom at least. It's a Mother's Day present. So happy Mother's Day mom. For my dad, we work so hard to get here. There's not much else I can say. My whole team support structure, all my family. It's so rewarding to stand up on this pedestal and be able to thank everyone for being part of this journey so far."
Premlall confirmed his hot putter is staying in the bag for the rest of the season.
"For sure. 100%. That putter is staying in the bag for a while or there's going to be a replica of it soon," Premlall said.
Mazzoli of Italy finished alone in second at 14-under, with the rest of the field unable to keep pace with the runaway South African as he flooded the back nine with birdie chances. Premlall hit every fairway through long stretches on Sunday and converted nearly everything inside 15 feet, briefly threatening 59 on a par 72 before the chase eased into a coronation.
The maiden victory will catapult Premlall into the upper reaches of the DP World Tour standings and almost certainly into Open Championship qualifying contention later in the year. For a player who, by his own description, spent the previous nine months simply trying to build a platform to win on, the leap from contender to record-holder happened in a single weekend in Catalonia.