Joost Luiten edges past Thomas Bjorn to win Lyoness Open

Atzenbrugg, Austria: Joost Luiten of the Netherlands won the Lyoness Open by two shots Sunday for his second European Tour title.

Luiten, who entered the day with a three-stroke lead, shot a 71 to finish at 17-under 271 on the Diamond Country Club course.

"It's a great feeling, it's been a great week," said Luiten, whose previous win came at the Iskandar Johor Open in Malaysia in November 2011, two months after finishing third in Atzenbrugg.

The victory was Luiten's third European Tour top-10 finish of the season and 20th overall. The win will raise his world ranking from 137th to just inside the top 100.

Thomas Bjorn of Denmark (68) finished second at 15 under. Liang Wen-chong of China (66) and Romain Wattel of France (69) shared third, another stroke off the pace.

Luiten bogeyed the first hole but led throughout the day. His closest challengers after the third round, Spaniards Jorge Campillo (72) and Eduardo de la Riva (73), failed to threaten.

"It was a long day. It started off with a bogey but I hit the ball nice," Luiten said. "I made some mistakes on the greens, I didn't make a lot of putts. Luckily I made a birdie on the 16th, and it's always nice to finish with par."

At the event two years ago, Luiten also led for most of the final round. But he bogeyed the last hole and finished third, trailing winner Kenneth Ferrie of England by one stroke. This time, the Dutchman had a solid finish to his round to keep Bjorn, who followed up Saturday's 64 with a 68, at a distance.

Before Luiten teed off on the 14th hole, play was suspended for an hour because of thunderclouds.

"At that time I wanted to play on, but I think it was good to have a break," Luiten said. "I wasn't playing really well before the break, so I got some food and tried to focus again."

Defending champion Bernd Wiesberger shot a 69 to tie for 14th at 8 under, missing a chance to qualify for the U.S. Open. Wiesberger made a bogey on the 18th hole. As it turned out, he would have needed a birdie to pass Kyle Stanley in the world ranking and have a chance to get into the top 60. Sunday was the last day for the top 60 to be exempt for the U.S. Open, which starts Thursday at Merion Golf Club outside Philadelphia.

"The bogey on the 18th was very disappointing," said Wiesberger, who needed a top-10 finish to stand a reasonable chance of qualifying. "I've just made too many mistakes the whole week."