Singapore: Jesper Svensson won his first DP World Tour title with a play-off victory over Kiradech Aphibarnrat at the Porsche Singapore Classic.

The Swede matched the course record with a closing nine-under-par 63 over the Classic Course at Laguna National Golf Resort Club to get to 17-under.

Playing in the group behind him, Thailand’s Kiradech holed a 15-foot eagle putt on the 18th green for a 64 to match Svensson’s 72-hole aggregate of 271.

Returning to the par-five 18th for the first hole of a sudden-death play-off, both men made birdies. At the second time of asking they could still not be separated, exchanging a pair of pars.

But Kiradech’s hopes of a first DP World Tour win for six years ended at the third extra hole when his third shot went over the back of the green from where he was only able to make a bogey. That left Svensson with two putts for victory, and he took them both.

Svensson may have turned professional nearly five years ago, winning on the Nordic Golf League in 2020, but his big breakthrough came last year with his victory at the B-NL Challenge Trophy on the European Challenge Tour.

He also achieved three second places as he finished fifth on the Road to Mallorca and continued to catch the eye, finishing second at the Investec South African Open Championship this season in just his sixth DP World Tour start.

Another runner-up finish came at the Bahrain Championship presented by Bapco Energies but he has now gone one better to win the opening event of the DP World Tour’s five-leg Asian Swing.

He said: “It’s been a lot of good golf so it was nice to finally come out on top. It’s very hard to win. It’s been a long journey. To win on my first season out here, I couldn’t have dreamt of it. It’s always been a dream to be a winner on the DP World Tour and to achieve it feels amazing.

“Combined with the Challenge Tour last year and the beginning of this season I’ve had five second-place spots in the last year. I really wanted to come out on top here.

“There were a couple of times today I told ‘Lucky’, my caddie … on 14 we were thinking about laying up and we both said: ‘No, we’re not finishing second again’ and it was the best shot of the week.”

English left-hander Sam Bairstow carded a fourth consecutive 68 to finish third at 16-under, one shot clear of countryman Andy Sullivan and two ahead of Frenchman Matthieu Pavon.

England’s Paul Casey was next at 13-under, with overnight leader David Micheluzzi of Australia, Spaniard Alejandro del Rey, Welshman Rhys Enoch and Indian Shubhankar Sharma one further back.

*Laguna National Golf Resort Club is a Facility Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.