Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Singapore. Show all posts

5/04/2014

Laguna Luck Holds for Lawrie

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Simon Thornton signed for a final round of 68 to move up seven places in the final leaderboard at The Championship at Laguna National on Sunday to tie for 20th place. 

Peter Lawrie - who carded his third sub 70 round of the week - also finished in 20th place and picked up hist first cheque of the season..

Both players however finished ten strokes off the winner, Felipe Aguilar, after the Chilean produced a stunning 2-2 finish as he came home in 28 shots to snatch victory from Anders Hansen.

Aguilar sank a ten foot birdie putt at the daunting par three 17th after his tee shot barely carried the water, then holed his approach for eagle at the last as a closing 62 saw him finish on 22 under par in Singapore.

Hansen spent much of the day on course for a first European Tour win in five years, but after failing to get up-and-down from sand at the 16th the Dane required a birdie from the last two holes and could not find one.

“Yesterday I didn’t have a good round and you figure that you’re so far back that you have no chance,” said Aguilar, who led the tournament before finding water and double bogeying the 13th during round three. “But today after the front nine I shot two under I knew I had to go deep and I hit the ball one of the best times I ever have and I went for every single pin. 

“Eight under on the back nine to win is pretty strong, especially making the last one on 18 being between clubs. This is something very, very special.

“I was right in between clubs and with the adrenaline you don’t want to hit a half shot. So I took a hard pitching wedge and it went in – it was very special finishing like that.

“On the 17th green I told my caddie if I make a birdie on 18 I might put some pressure on the leader and he said ‘you might make two’. I looked at him and said ‘the way I’m hitting the ball I might make two’, and I did. 

“I didn’t think I had made it until my caddie came back and told me and the others congratulated me. That was the cherry on the cake, definitely.”

The 43 year old Hansen started the day level with Thailand’s Panuphol Pittayarat but surged four shots clear on the front nine.

The three-time European Tour winner had to overcome a bogey at the first after missing a par putt from inside five feet.

However, pitches to three feet at the second and third set up birdies and a 20 foot putt at the fourth completed a hat-trick of gains.

Hansen picked up further shots from five feet at the sixth and 12 feet at the seventh to go four clear, but American David Lipsky responded with gains at the eighth and ninth to bring the gap back down to two.

Aguilar turned in 34 after birdies from 15 feet at the fifth and ten feet at the eighth, but set off for home with four straight gains.

The Chilean, whose only previous European Tour title came in neighbouring Indonesia six years ago, joined Lipsky in second as a result – but both were three behind when Hansen holed form 15 feet on the 12th.

Both Aguilar and Hansen birdied the long 15th, but the former’s incredible finish left the Dane needing another gain over the closing stretch.

Hansen then bogeyed the 16th from the sand, and despite holing a four foot clutch putt for par at the next, missed the green at the last and had to settle for par and a closing 67.

That saw him tie for second with Lipsky, who signed for a closing 65, with India’s Rahil Gangjee fourth on 19 under after birdieing his last five holes. 

Hansen, playing only his fourth event after six months off due to wrist surgery, said: “What can you say? It’s just one of those days. 

“He had a good day, played well obviously. I thought I played well.

“When you are there you want to get the job done and I didn’t, so not particularly happy. 

“The last two weeks have been really good. I’ve hit the ball really well and putted nicely so there is not much to say. I can’t really blame myself for this.”

Garthe Maybin slumped to a 54th place finish after a final round 75.
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5/01/2014

Lawrie Sees Some Light

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Peter Lawrie dropped just one shot on the opening day of The Championship in Singapore to sign for a round of 68 and finish four under par.

Having retained his playing rights in the last eligible event in Perth at the end of the season Lawrie has focused on his fitness conditioning, and altered his swing as a result of working with new coach, Jamie Gough. 

Despite the changes the poor form of last season continued into this season with 11 consecutive cuts missed.

This week in Singapore is the first time the Dubliner has hit a sub-70 round since the Alfred Dunhill last September.

Overall it was a low scoring day, wtih heavy rain and lightning threatening to delay the start of play and led to preferred lies being employed, Thailand’s Panuphol Pittayarat holds the lead following a nine-under total of 63. With preferred lies in play, the world number 451’s bogey-free round would not count as a new course record but that was of little concern to the 21-year-old after a sparkling performance featuring only 22 putts.

“I was very happy with how I played. I didn’t see it coming,” Panuphol said afterwards. Panuphol missed the cut in each of his three events on the Asian Tour this year but his birdie-blitz was enough to earn a one-shot lead over Scotland’s Scott Jamieson, American David Lipsky and South Korea’s Kim Byung-jun.

The event was due to be hosted in the homeland of Kim, the joint worst ranked player in the field at 1,529 in the world, but the European and Asian Tour announced the switch of venues to Singapore last month after “staging issues”.

Singaporean Quincy Quek, playing the course the wrong way around, finished with two birdies to join the group at eight-under as a number of Asian Tour players made a strong start to the event lacking Europe’s elite.

Another Thai, Arnond Vongvanij, briefly threatened golf’s golden number of 59 before settling for a 65. Arnond opened his round with four birdies as he reached the turn in 30.

He added further birdies to reach eight-under after 11 holes only for a double-bogey five at his penultimate hole dumped him down into a share of seventh under fading light.

Defending champion Brett Rumford was well down the field after carding a two-under 70, a score matched by last week’s China Open winner Alexander Levy.

Damien McGrane and Gareth Maybin finished one under with rounds of 71.

Simon Thornton ended level par after a round of 72.

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