Emotional Olesen snatches victory from jaws of defeat at British Masters

An emotional Thorbjorn Olesen fought back tears after winning the British Masters in barely believable fashion at The Belfry on Sunday.

Five months to the day after being cleared of sexually assaulting a woman on a flight from the United States, Olesen finished eagle-birdie for the second day in succession to snatch an unlikely victory from the jaws of defeat.

The former Ryder Cup winner took a three-shot lead into the final round but struggled with a hook all day and was four over par after 16 holes.

With Sebastian Soderberg in the clubhouse on nine under, Olesen needed to play the last two holes in two under just to force a play-off, but went one better by holing from 28 feet for an eagle on the 17th and 35 feet on the last.

"It's been a long time since I won and it's been some tough years but luckily I had some great people around me, especially my partner Lauren," said Olesen, who was cleared on December 8 last year of sexually assaulting a woman on a British Airways flight in July 2019.

The 32-year-old claimed he turned into an "automaton" and was not in control of his body after drinking and taking prescription-only sleeping pills before a flight from Nashville to London, following a tournament in Memphis.

"It's been extremely hard, really tough and that's why this one feels really special to me," added Olesen, who was ranked 62nd in the world at the time of the incident but started the week 376th.

"You sometimes feel that you're never going to win again, even play again and I think that was really tough to go through. Standing here after a lot of hard work and belief to win again really means so much.

"It gives me loads of confidence which in this game is so important, especially with the finish I had.

"The other wins have