South African Yurav Premlall with the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship trophy, his maiden DP World Tour title, in Barcelona on Sunday. Image courtesy DPWT/Getty Images.
By Rahul Banerji
Young South African Yurav Premlall and England veteran Chris Woods recorded memorable victories — for different reasons — on the DP World Tour and its subsidiary HotelPlanner Tour on Sunday.
While Premlall brought in the biggest win margin for a rookie on the DPWT at the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship, Wood overcame years on the fringes with the Italian Challenge Open title.
Once a Ryder Cup player and ranked as high as 22nd in the world, Wood lost status on both the DPWT and HotelPlanner Tour, returning to the MENA Tour and Q School to earn playing rights last week.
It was his first start on the HPT this season, and an emotional victory.
In Barcelona, Premlall stormed to a stunning 14-shot win for a maiden DP World Tour title, setting the course record on the way and narrowly missing Tiger Woods’ 15-stroke victory margin that is the best ever on the DPWT.
The South African set out on Sunday with a five-shot lead after a sensational 63 on Saturday and pulled away from his closest pursuers with six birdies on the front nine to lead by 12 at the turn.
Further gains stretched the 22-year-old’s advantage to 14 strokes and raised the prospect of equalling Woods’ 26-year-old record for the largest winning margin on the Tour.
A bogey looked to have put Tiger’s mark out of reach but Premlall (70-64-63-63, 28 under 260) went at it anyway, closing with back-to-back birdies to fall one stroke short.
In the books
It was still good enough to go into the record books as the biggest margin for a maiden title on the DP World Tour, this time surpassing Tiger’s previous mark of 11 shots at the 1997 Masters Tournament.
Fellow South African Shaun Norris was solo second on 14 under with a closing 68, while Spaniard Alejandro del Rey, Frenchman Oihan Guillamoundeguy and South African J.C. Ritchie shared third place on 13 under 275.
Yuvraj Sandhu (68-72-72-69) took a share of 31st place on 7 under 281.
“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 later.
“The last eight, 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 and to end up obviously in this position.
“I’m just so grateful so it’s a dream come true.”
Veteran Englishman Chris Wood, making a comeback via the MENA Tour and Q School, with the Italian Challenge Open trophy at Viterbo on Sunday. Image courtesy Getty Images.
Emotional comeback
In Italy, Wood birdied the 72nd hole for a maiden HotelPlanner Tour victory at the Italian Challenge Open at Golf Nazionale.
The Englishman closed with a bogey-free 66 to win in his first start of the year on the 2026 Road to Mallorca, finishing on 22 under par for the week.
Wood (68-64-68-66) was pushed all the way by Portugal’s Tomás Gouveia (68-67-66-66) but was eventually able to get his season off to the perfect start, having graduated from the MENA Tour earlier this year.
“It feels brilliant,” Wood, who had to battle depression and had dropped out of the game, said. “What a tough day. Tomas’ back nine, he lit it up all of a sudden out of nowhere.
“You’re never given tournaments, you have to go out and earn them and I feel like I did that.
“I was giving myself chances on every hole and I had two or three putts that I thought were in around the turn which was frustrating.
“The putts weren’t dropping for me until on 15 from around 15 feet which was deserved, and then I managed to sneak one up the last.”
Also read: Sandhu, Shubhankar make the cut at Turkish Airlines Open
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