He kicked away a 3-shot lead. Then came his ‘coolest moment’

For a little while it seemed like nobody wanted to win the Italian Open.

Sean Crocker reached 10 under par on the back nine Sunday but made bogey at No. 14 and pars the rest of the way to post 9 under par.

Shubhankar Sharma reached 11 under par on the back nine Sunday but made double bogey at No. 14 and bogey at No. 16 to drop back to 8 under par.

Jannik De Bruyn reached 11 under par on the back nine Sunday but made bogeys at 14 and 18; he finished at 9 under.

Antoine Rozner reached 13 under par on the back nine Sunday but played his final six holes in five over par; he wouldn’t factor in the final few holes, either.

Marcel Siem reached 13 under par, too. But then he bogeyed 11, 14, 15 and 17 and he, too, appeared to have let the coveted title slip through his fingers.

Up ahead, Northern Irishman Tom McKibbin had started the final round in the middle of the pack but rallied with a Sunday 65 to seize the clubhouse lead at 10 under par. That was a nice number, to be sure — but at the time it felt unlikely to be enough. At the time he posted the score there were several players tied or ahead of him and DataGolf gave him just a 0.1 percent chance of winning.

That changed slowly and then suddenly. McKibbin watched from the clubhouse as his competition faltered, one by one, down the stretch. By the time Siem came down the 18th hole, one shot back, he was the only one with a chance to catch McKibbin — who’d now been done for three hours. And Siem need a dramatic moment just to force extra holes.

He delivered.

Siem has long been among the most demonstrative players in the game, and when he poured in a 22-footer for birdie on 18, several hours’-worth of tension and frustration gave way. He erupted into celebration, throwing his visor to the ground and screaming to the crowd.

He and McKibbin went back to the tee at the par-4 18th. Both left themselves looks for birdie but McKibbin missed and then Siem made his again, this time from 10 feet, to end the tournament.

The win marked just the latest notable moment in the 43-year-old German’s rollercoaster career. He won his first DP World Tour event in 2004, more than 20 years ago. He was a fixture on tour for years but lost his card after the 2021 season, played the Challenge Tour to get it back, lost his card again, made his way back via Q-School and finished off his comeback with a win at the 2023 Hero Indian Open.

There was little to suggest this would be his week, either: Siem was making just his fourth start following hip surgery and had finished MC-MC-T37 in the preceding three weeks.

And so he admitted post-round that this finish — his sixth win on the European circuit — holds a special place in his golfing memory.

“Holing that putt on 18 was one the coolest moments in golf for me and doing it again in a play-off was fantastic,” he said, per the tour. “I love this sport, I just love it and it’s so much fun to work hard for it if you get rewards like this now. I love life, I love golf, it can’t get any better at the moment.”

Siem held the lead beginning Sunday’s round, and three early birdies had him in pole position. But after the back-nine bogeys he was suddenly tied with McKibbin, a rising European star less than half his age. It’s not the first time the two have dueled down the stretch; a year ago McKibbin edged Siem at the Porsche European Open.

He’s now 3-0 in playoffs for his career.

Fitting for a man with a flair for the dramatic.