FISHER'S FIRST EUROPEAN TOUR 

VICTORY - BY 5 SHOTS FROM FORD

Trevor Fisher junior, 35-year-old South African, had won eight times on his domestic circuit, the Sunshine Tour but never on the European Tour - until this weekend's Africa Open at East London Golf Club.
Fisher won by five shots with a brilliant 72-hole aggregate of 24-under-par 264. He earned 166,053 euros with rounds of 68, 68, 63 and 64.
Runner-up was Matt Ford from Kent, who was contemplating becoming a postman until he got through the European Tour Qualifying School at the 10th attempt. He was PGA assistant champion in his rookie year (2004) as a pro.
He shot 67, 66, 69 and 67 for 269 and earned 120,484 euros.
Scott Jamieson was the top Scot on 278, tieing for 18th place on 278, thanks to an excellent last round of 66. His earlier scores were 71, 69 and 72. He earned 12,223 euros.
David Drysdale finished on 279 and T23 with scores of 70, 71, 68 and 70. He earned 10,3782 euros.
Craig Lee picked up 5,134 euros for rounds of 75, 64, 77 and 67 for a T45 finish on 283.
Chris Doak matched the par of 288 and was placed T67 with scores of 71, 71, 73 and 73 for a 2,305 euros payslip.

MATT FORD'S BEST FINISH YET
FROM SKYSPORTS.COM 

Matt Ford celebrated the biggest pay-day of his career at the Africa Open and hopes his performance will go a long way towards helping him retain his European Tour card.

The Englishman was close to spending the winter working for the Royal Mail as he headed for the Qualifying School last November, but he reached the final stage thanks to a superb 62 and then finished fourth after six gruelling rounds at PGA Catalunya.
The 36-year-old made the cut in three of his five starts prior to arriving at East London, where four excellent sub-70 rounds earned him outright second place behind runaway winner Trevor Fisher Jnr.
Ford trailed the South African by just one shot after eight holes on the final day, but he bogeyed the ninth as Fisher birdied and his five-under 67 left him five shots behind the champion.
"It's my best finish on tour and my biggest cheque by some way so I'm very happy," said Ford, who banked over 120,000 euros for his efforts.
"It's a big chunk (towards keeping my card) that's hopefully going to make a big difference at the end of the season. If I can keep playing like that hopefully everything will be good.
"I had a couple of missed putts here and there and didn't quite strike it as well as I would have liked down the last nine holes, but Trevor was 17 under for his last two rounds so it was going to take something special to beat it.
"I finished second by three shots so I obviously played some good golf this week, but he has just played a bit better."

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72) prize money in euros
264 Trevor Fisher junior (SAf) 69 68 63 64 (166,059)
269 Matt Ford (Eng) 67 66 69 67 (120,484)
272 Jorge Campillo (Spa) 71 68 67 66, Eduardo de la Riva (Spa) 68 66 72 66, Morten Orum Madsen (Den) 71 71 64 66 (55,737).

SCOTS' TOTALS
278 Scott Jamieson 71 69 72 66 (T18) (12,223)
279 David Drysdale 70 71 68 70 (T24) (10,372)
283 Craig Lee 75 64 77 67 (T45) (5,134)
288 Chris Doak 71 71 723 73 (T67 (2,305)

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