Laurie Kanter finally had a breakthrough.
Kante, 34, from Bath, England, won the Porsche European Open, his first victory on the DP World Tour.
Kanter pulled away from the pack on the back nine, leaving four players tied for first place in the race for the title. But while other players stumbled at the Green Eagle Golf Links in Hamburg, Germany, Kanter stayed steady. Kanter birdied the 11th, 15th and 16th holes — all par 5s — giving him a three-shot lead on the final two holes.
He lost a shot on the 17th hole, missing par by 8 feet, but it didn't matter. Kanter finished at 13 under, beating Austrian Bernd Weisberg and South African Triston Lawrence by two shots.
“I tried not to let myself get bogged down in the tournament. I just tried to keep it calm,” Kante said on the DP World Tour broadcast after the match.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25474730/2155727500.jpg)
“Everything went my way today, unlike a thousand times in the past. Now that I've done it, I look back at the times when I didn't do it and I think the problem wasn't what I did, but what other people did.”
It was a career-defining moment for the Englishman, who has played all over the world since turning professional in 2011. He has played on the Asian Tour, European Tour, LIV Golf Tour and numerous mini-tours.
But before Sunday, he had just one professional win, in 2015 at a mini-tour event in England.
However, Kanter has finished inside the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) top 100 several times during his career and finally won the title after coming close several times. His best result on the DP World Tour was a runner-up finish to Billy Horschel at the 2021 BMW PGA Championship.
From there, Kanter decided to try out LIV Golf but was not selected for the team. Last fall, he lost out on the LIV Golf promotion and missed out on a chance to play on the Saudi-sponsored tour in 2024.
A few months ago, Kanter tied for 17th at the Royal Liverpool Open.
But now he is the DP World Tour champion, a feat he achieved after 13 years of hard work.
Jack Milko is SB Nation's Playing Through golf columnist. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @JackMilco Same here.