Englishman Paul Broadhurst had more reasons than most to celebrate making the cut at the Czech Open, having come close to withdrawing from the €1.5million event after collapsing on the street on Wednesday night.
The six-time European Tour winner completed a remarkable turnaround in his fortunes on Saturday morning by birdieing the final hole of his second round at Prosper Golf Resort in Čeladná, the Czech Republic, to squeeze under the cut line on two over par.
That scenario had looked unlikely when Broadhurst collapsed with a suspected case of heatstroke in the nearby town of Ostrava on the eve of the tournament, and had to be rushed to hospital.
Once there, he was placed on a drip for three hours and assessed by medical staff, before being released and given clearance to tee up in the tournament.
He said: “It was just a run-of-the-mill evening really. I’d only had a small glass of beer and was just waiting for my food to arrive, when all of a sudden I started feeling really unwell. I went outside to get some fresh air and ended up passing out for about 20 minutes, then when I came round I was in an ambulance on the way to hospital. So it wasn’t exactly ideal preparation for the tournament!
“I had a lot of tests done on my heart rate and blood pressure, and everything came back normal. So they thought it was probably sunstroke, because I’d be out in the blazing heat for around four hours on Wednesday afternoon. Obviously I was taking fluids on board, but I didn’t take enough on and got a bit dehydrated as well.
“I didn’t get too much sleep on Wednesday night, but when I arrived at the course on Thursday morning I figured I might as well give it a go. I got off to a reasonable start and managed to keep it going, and although I threw a few bogeys and doubles in here and there – mainly due to a loss of concentration and feeling a bit tired – I managed to make the weekend, so it’s all been worthwhile. Now I’ve just got to start climbing up the leaderboard.”