Adrian Meronk secures Alfred Dunhill Links win at St Andrews - Golfweek
Ten years ago, Adrian Meronk of Poland made his pro debut at the DP World Tour’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in St. Andrews, Scotland. A decade later, he shot a final-round 4-under 68 at the Old Course to win the tournament, his fifth DP World Tour title, by two strokes over Casey Jarvis and Niklas Norgaard.
"This one feels pretty special," an emotional Meronk said. "I'm extremely happy and relieved."
Wearing a beanie on a cold, windy, gray Sunday at the Home of Golf, Meronk carded six birdies as he erased a two-shot deficit to start the day and finished at 20-under 268. Nursing a one-stroke lead, Meronk enjoyed his walk across the Swilcan Burn Bridge at 18.
"Actually, as I was crossing the bridge," he recounted, "I talked to myself and was thinking about Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus walking on the bridge and I was kind of asking them for good momentum, good energy from them and it was just a great feeling that walk."
Meronk, 33, chose LIV Golf over the PGA Tour after the 2024 season, and won the 2025 LIV season opener in Riyadh. But he didn’t record a single top-20 finish on LIV this season and entered the week ranked 141st in the Race to Dubai. He had fallen to 527th in the Official World Golf Ranking. After posting 63 on Saturday at Kingsbarn Golf Links to join the trophy hunt, he told an interviewer, “It's nice to be standing here. I haven't been here for a while in this position.”
It had been such a dismal season for Meronk that he admitted that two months ago he was considering taking a break from golf. "I wasn't enjoying it as much as I used to," he explained. "To be sitting here now with that trophy just shows you how quick it can change, and just unbelievable. I mean, golf is such a strange sport. One day, you know, you're fighting for life, and then you win one of the biggest tournaments on Tour."
On Sunday, he birdied the first two holes as well as the fifth and ninth while making a clutch par save at six and dropping his lone shot of the day at No. 7. That was his first five on his card in 25 holes. Birdies at Nos. 12 and 14 lifted Meronk to 21 under until a dropped shot at No. 17, the toughest hole on the course.
South Africa’s Jarvis, who improved to fourth in the Race to Dubai, birdied Nos. 4 and 5 to reach 20 under but bogeys at Nos. 9 and 11 dropped him off the pace. He birdied 15 and closed to one stroke off the lead but tripped up at 17, too, and couldn’t catch Meronk, signing for even-par 72. The victory marked Meronk’s first DP World Tour win since the 2023 Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters.
Denmark’s Norgaard birdied 18 to shoot 68 and tie Jarvis for second. England’s Tommy Fleetwood posted the low score of the day, 64, and finished T-4 with Scotland’s Michael Stewart (66), who earned a career-best result. American Brooks Koepka made eagles at Nos. 9 and 18 to shoot 66 and finish T-6 with Scot Robert MacIntyre (68).
Meronk and his amateur partner Tom Chaplin, the lead singer of the English rock band Keane, won the pro-am portion, too, with a total of 41-under, a shot better than the team of Norgaard and PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and two other teams.
"It was so much fun," Meronk said. " Whenever I struggled, he got my back and I'm super-happy for him as well."
