Marco Penge has now claimed three European Tour titles this season, and his latest victory comes with added rewards.
With a sudden-death win on Sunday at the Spanish Open over fellow Englishman Daniel Brown, Penge earned invites to next year’s Masters and Open Championship — perks that were put into place for the first time this year.
“It’s crazy,” Penge said of playing in the Masters. “It’s a course that I’ve always wanted to play, because I feel like my game sets up really good for it.”
A lot of courses have seemed like a good fit of late for Penge, 27, who also won the Danish Golf Championship and the Hainan Classic in April.
At the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid this week, Penge kept up his strong play and entered the final round with a four-shot lead. But he flatlined on Sunday, shooting a 1-over par 72 while Brown, who began the day five shots back, punctuated a closing 4-under 67 with a birdie on the 18th hole to force a playoff.
The extended play did not last long, as Penge ended matters on the first extra hole.
It was a good time for a birdie, and a great time for a win, given a recent shift by two of the most powerful institutions in the game. In August, Augusta National Golf Club announced in conjunction with the R&A that the Masters, along with the Open Championship, would be offering new invites to a select group of national opens, including the Japan Open, the Hong Kong Open, the Australian Open, the South Africa Open and … wait for it … the Spanish Open.
At the same time, Augusta and the R&A did away with auto invites to those same events for the PGA Tour’s seven fall tournaments. If you want to compete for the green jacket or the Claret Jug, you’re now better off winning in Spain than in Napa or at the Baycurrent Classic in Japan.
Though far from a household name in the United States, Penge captured plenty of attention across the pond this year and was among the candidates in the conversation as a potential captain’s pick for the European Team in the Ryder Cup. He didn’t get the nod to travel to New York. But he now has other U.S. plans this spring.