Adrian Meronk has won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, overturning a two-shot final-round deficit to claim his fifth DP World Tour title and end a 1,078-day wait for a victory on the circuit.
The Polish golfer finished on 20 under par, two strokes ahead of South Africa’s Casey Jarvis and Denmark’s Niklas Nørgaard. The result also secured Meronk’s DP World Tour status for next season after he had begun the week 141st in the Race to Dubai ranking, according to the tour.
Meronk started the final day behind Jarvis but made birdies at the first two holes to quickly reduce the gap. The pair were level at the turn after Jarvis three-putted the ninth, before Meronk moved ahead with a birdie at the 12th and extended his advantage with another gain at the 14th.
Jarvis reduced the deficit with a hole-out from off the green at the 15th, but Meronk remained in front despite dropping a shot at the 17th. Jarvis then made bogey at the penultimate hole, leaving Meronk with a two-stroke lead to protect on the 18th.
Meronk parred the last to complete a significant win at the Old Course, at the tournament where he made his first professional start. He said the result had carried added emotion after what he described as a difficult year.
Meronk’s final-round recovery at St Andrews
Jarvis had arrived at the final round with a two-shot lead, but Meronk’s brisk start brought him straight into contention. Jarvis regained the outright lead with a birdie at the fourth and both players birdied the fifth, while Meronk’s par save at the sixth kept him close.
Meronk fell one behind after a bogey at the seventh, only to respond with a close-range birdie at the ninth. Jarvis’s three-putt at the same hole meant the contest was level with nine holes remaining.
The decisive swing came across holes 11 and 12. Jarvis failed to get up and down after missing the green at the par-three 11th, while Meronk converted an 11-foot birdie putt at the 12th. That sequence gave Meronk the outright lead and he later moved three clear with his birdie at the 14th.
The victory was Meronk’s first since the 2023 Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters. The DP World Tour reported that the win allowed him to retain his playing status for the following season, changing the immediate stakes of the rest of his campaign.
Meronk also won the tournament’s team competition alongside his Pro-Am partner, Keane singer Tom Chaplin. The pair finished on a combined 41 under par, with Meronk becoming only the third player in the event’s 25-year history to win both the individual and team titles in the same year, according to the DP World Tour.
Stewart’s strong week creates a scheduling choice
There was notable Scottish interest behind the leaders as Michael Stewart finished inside the top 10 alongside England’s Tommy Fleetwood. The BBC reported that Stewart was ranked 979th in the world and had been playing on the Tartan Pro Tour the previous week and was making only his sixth DP World Tour appearance.
His result earned him a place in the following week’s Spanish Open, but it clashes with the Gleneagles Masters, the final event of the Tartan Pro Tour season. Stewart is second on that order of merit and said he was minded to play at Gleneagles in an attempt to secure a Challenge Tour card for 2027.
Robert MacIntyre and Brooks Koepka shared sixth place on 16 under, while Matthew Jordan, who had begun the final round close to the lead, fell to joint 11th after a three-over-par 75 at the Old Course. Matt Fitzpatrick finished joint 17th after an even-par final round, Sky Sports reported.
For Meronk, however, the St Andrews finish delivered both a fifth tour title and the immediate security he had been seeking. His comeback from behind on the final day ensured the Old Course hosted a victory with consequences beyond the trophy.