Paul’s All That and More

Former CU golfer Yannik Paul wins first DP World Tour event.

By Jon Rizzi

With three holes left to play in the Mallorca Golf Open at Son Muntaner Golf Club, Germany’s Yannik Paul found himself two shots behind his playing partner, Marcus Armitage, the Englishman with whom he’d shared the lead just minutes earlier.

The two-shot swing began a wild final stretch on the Balearic Island 125 miles east of mainland Spain.

No sooner had Armitage circled his 3 on the 15^th than he was drawing a square around his 4 on par-3 16^th as Paul made par.

On the par-5 17^th Armitage drew two squares around a double-bogey 7; and one less around his bogey 5 on the par-4 finishing hole, dropping to 12-under for the tournament. Meanwhile, Paul—who played for the University of Colorado and still lives part-time in Boulder County—saved par on 17, leaving him two shots clear of Armitage heading into 18, but now tied at 14-under with countryman Nicolai Von Dellingshausen and England’s Paul Waring, who’d both already signed their cards.

After hitting his approach to the fringe, 15 feet from the pin, the 28-year-old from Frankfurt coolly slotted in his difficult 15-foot birdie try to deny Waring and Von Dellingshausen a playoff and win his first event on the DP World Tour.

“I’m speechless, honestly, I’m just so happy,” the rookie victor said.

“We worked a lot on my mental side,” he said, referring to his girlfriend, Kaela McGill of Colorado, and we were dreaming that she would be here for my first win, and she’s here now, it’s unbelievable.”

Paul—whose twin brother, Jeremy, notched three top 10s on the Korn Ferry Tour this year, including a T3 at The Ascendant Presented by Blue at TPC Colorado—had entered the final day with the overall lead and held it through the front nine.

“It was really hard to just stay in the moment,” he explained. “But luckily none of the other guys really made a lot of putts.”

Paul admits he also left a few out there, but he came through on the most important one. The win moved Paul from 43rd to 20th in the current DP Tour rankings and put he earned €347,826 (approximately $344,000).

“I couldn’t have dreamt of a better ending, so I’m over the moon.”

With the victory, Paul became the first former CU grad since Matt Zions to win on the circuit formerly known as the European Tour. Zions, a reinstated amateur from Australia, won the Saint-Omer Open in 2011.

The win gives Paul six top 10s (including a runner-up at the Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final supported by the R&A) on the DP World Tour during the 2021-22 season. He is 20th in the tour’s season rankings.

Check out highlights from Paul’s nearly record-setting, third round.

700k rounds have been played on the DP World Tour but just one round of 59.

Today @YannikPaul flirted with making it two…#MallorcaGolfOpen pic.twitter.com/SupVsoNDrf

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) October 22, 2022

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