Garcia clinches title with closing 67

Sergio Garcia lived up to his billing as favourite by clinching the Mallorca Classic title by four strokes on Sunday for his first European Tour victory of the season.

Garcia had to come from three shots behind Britain's Simon Khan after the first two holes of the final round, accelerating to a closing three-under-par 67 and a 12-under-par total of 268 as he claimed his fifth European title.

Khan finished in second placed after a closing 71.

The 24-year-old Spaniard, who spurned a chance to play in the World Matchplay Championship to play on Mallorca, completed his third victory of the year either side of the Atlantic, adding to the Byron Nelson Championship and Buick Classic titles on the U.S. Tour.

However, he had to dig deep after beginning his round with two bogeys.

Khan, who had shared the lead overnight with Garcia, birdied the first to break three clear, but then also threw in two bogeys to let back in an opponent who, at number 11, was 57 places ahead of him in the world rankings.

Six birdies in 11 holes then turned the tables as Garcia established an unassailable lead over Khan, the Wales Open winner in June.

Garcia was playing only his 10th European Tour event.

"It's great winning on the European Tour again and to do it in Spain makes it that much sweeter," he said.

"I don't know why my head was not in the right place at the beginning, I was a bit tentative.

"Maybe the pressure was on me a little bit because of the gallery expecting me to win and that could have been the reason why I started off a little bit shaky.

"Getting up and down on the third and fourth holes was huge for me, to keep me in the right mood and after that I started loosening up and made a few birdies."

"To be five under for the last 13 holes was a great result."

Khan blamed his weekend putting.

"If I had holed the putts the way I did in the first two rounds it might have been a different story," said the Englishman.

"To be fair, he showed his class in the end."

Another Spaniard, Carlos Rodiles, finished third, five strokes behind Garcia.

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