NORWEGIAN CHALLENGE - FINAL TOTALS

By SARAH GWYNN
European Challenge Tour Press Officer
Scottish trio Craig Lee, Andrew McArthur and Chris Doak were left disappointed after they narrowly missed out on victory in the Norwegian Challenge.
Lee and McArthur were the best placed at the start of the day at Hauger Golf Club near Oslo, two shots off the lead, but the former carded a three over par 75 to slip back to a share of ninth place, while McArthur’s level par 72 left him tied third with Doak, who impressed with a four under par 68.
McArthur needed to birdie the last to join the play-off between Florian Praegant and Andrea Pavan, and when his drive found the middle of the fairway it looked promising. However, he went in a greenside bunker with his second shot and did well to get up and down for par.
“I’m disappointed,” admitted the 32 year old. “I had no idea of the scores as there was no leaderboard on the 17th. But I was still trying to make birdie and finish as high up as I could, so to go in a bunker from the middle of the fairway was not good enough.”
Lee was the outright leader at one stage and three under for his round after five holes, but he bogeyed the sixth and 12th, then double bogeyed the 13th for the second day running.
“It’s annoying because I was making good progress, then I threw away shots on the back nine again, just like I did yesterday. The 13th has been a strange hole because I birdied it the first two days, then double bogeyed it the last two.
“I had a good chance today so it’s frustrating, especially as no one ran away with it.”
Doak, who had his best finish of the season, added: “I played well all week but just made three mistakes which all ended up with a double bogey. Three mistakes cost me six shots in the first three rounds so it was nice to have a bogey-free card today.
“But it’s encouraging and I’ll go to Denmark next week with a lot of confidence in the way I’m playing.”
FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72)
279 A Pavan (Ita) 70 71 68 70, F Praegant (Aut) 70 71 69 69,
280 C Doak (Sco) 71 68 73 68, A McArthur (Sco) 70 70 68 72,
281 S Thornton (Irl) 71 69 68 73
282 J Hepworth (Eng) 69 69 68 76, J Heath (Eng) 71 68 69 74, J Lagergren (Swe) 72 71 71 68
283 P Edberg (Swe) 66 69 78 70, G Dear (Sco) 70 72 71 70, F Valera (Esp) 68 70 70 75, R Steiner (Aut) 64 74 73 72, M Thorp (Nor) 72 70 69 72, C Lee (Sco) 66 72 70 75, V Almstrom (Swe) 67 70 73 73
284 J Moul (Eng) 71 68 74 71, L Kennedy (Eng) 71 67 73 73, K Ventura (am) (Nor) 70 70 71 73
285 M Southgate (Eng) 72 66 77 70, S Little (Eng) 67 74 71 73, H Santos (Por) 70 71 71 73, C Brazillier (Fra) 67 73 73 72, G Adell (Swe) 71 70 72 72, S Piaget (Mon) 67 71 71 76, K Eriksson (Swe) 70 69 71 75, L Jensen (Den) 68 72 72 73, A Snobeck (Fra) 69 73 75 68, B Åkesson (Swe) 74 66 70 75, G Houston (Wal) 69 72 71 73, H Norlander (Swe) 76 64 72 73, D Vancsik (Arg) 70 67 75 73
286 C Lloyd (Eng) 70 72 76 68, B Grace (RSA) 71 71 66 78, S Bebb (Wal) 69 73 70 74, A Butterfield (Eng) 72 67 72 75, M Warren (Sco) 72 67 73 74
287 M Madsen (Den) 71 70 70 76, A Otaegui (Esp) 76 66 69 76, A Tadini (Ita) 72 70 70 75, C Monasterio (Arg) 68 71 74 74, C Ford (Eng) 69 71 74 73, A Ahokas (Fin) 69 72 72 74, E Johansen (Nor) 67 72 72 76, F Ohlsson (Swe) 70 73 70 74
288 K Borsheim (Nor) 68 74 74 72, P Relecom (Bel) 75 67 74 72, V Riu (Fra) 68 71 73 76, S Hutsby (Eng) 69 70 75 74, G Jackson (Eng) 68 73 72 75, B Barham (Eng) 71 72 70 75, P Dwyer (Eng) 73 69 72 74, L Canter (Eng) 71 72 71 74
289 J Quesne (Fra) 73 70 74 72, J Campillo (Esp) 73 70 72 74, P Kaensche (Nor) 72 69 73 75, G Lockerbie (Eng) 68 74 74 73
290 J Guerrier (Fra) 75 68 73 74, B Evans (Eng) 72 71 71 76, N Floren (Swe) 71 71 75 73, A Bossert (Sui) 71 71 72 76, E Bertheussen (Nor) 73 70 73 74
291 C Aronsen (Nor) 69 72 73 77, H Joannes (Bel) 70 71 72 78, N Kearney (Irl) 71 72 74 74
292 B Hebert (Fra) 69 72 74 77
293 M Kieffer (Ger) 71 70 72 80, E Kofsta (Nor) 68 75 80 70, J Clément (Sui) 68 73 78 74, P Nilbrink (Nor) 71 68 73 81,
299 B Chapellan (Fra) 76 67 78 78,
** F Henge (Swe) 68 75 74 WD,