Sunday, July 10, 2016

Richie Ramsay earns place in field for Open championship

Sweden's Alex Noren makes Scottish Open

 his fifth European Tour win
   Picture of Alex Noren with the championship trophy by courtesy of Getty Images(c)

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Sweden's Alex Noren held his nerve at Castle Stuart Golf Links in a final round that stretched into the evening to win his fifth European Tour title at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.
All four of his previous victories had come when the man from Stockholm, who will be 34 on Tuesday,  held the 54-hole lead and he maintained that record as he was briefly caught but never overtaken on a dramatic final day at the Moray Firth coastline venue between Nairn and Inverness.
A closing two under par 70 got the Swede to 14 under 274 and handed him a one-shot victory over Tyrrell Hatton, with Nicolas Colsaerts, Danny Lee and Matteo Manassero a shot further back.
Colsaerts, Hatton, Manassero and Aberdeen's Richie Ramsay all earned themselves a place in the coming week's Open Championship at Royal Troon by virtue of their top 12 finishes.
Ramsay had a six-birdie closing round of 67 to tie for sixth place on 11-under 277 

The win represents the first time Noren has won in consecutive seasons after his victory in the 2015 Nordea Masters and continues his remarkable comeback after missing most of the 2014 season with wrist injuries.
"I'm so happy it's over because it was a tough, tough leaderboard," he said. "A lot of guys at 11, 12, 13 under and it was just not a cruising win at all.
"Thinking about it this morning, how much it would mean, then it feels like miles away and now when it happens, it just feels unbelievable.

"This is by far my biggest win, the amount of very good players that are here and on a links course like this in Scotland. It's what I dreamed of when I was growing up.
"I'll just try to enjoy this. I know how tough this game is and I'm just really happy to get a win and then for next week, it's a new week and see what happens."
Englishman Hatton is still in search of a first European Tour win but this is his best result so far in a season that has seen him miss just two cuts in 13 events.

Hatton's countryman Andy Sullivan finished at 11 under alongside Ramsay with Spaniard Jorge Campillo and England's Callum Shinkwin, who matched the tournament low round of 65 today,  a further shot back.

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell,  Inverness-born Russell Knox and American Patrick Reed were then at nine under.

Ramsay was the first player to make a real charge up the leaderboard as he looked to become the first Scottish winner of this event since Colin Montgomerie in 1999.


He made a run of four birdies from the third - the highlight being a stunning 45-foot putt on the fourth - to get to ten under but that was three off the lead when Noren birdied the second. The chasing pack were all jostling for position and it was New Zealander Lee who looked like he would present the biggest threat with birdies on the third and sixth moving him to 11 under.
Noren then missed the green at the eighth to drop a shot and when Lee made a birdie on the tenth, there was a tie for the lead. Hatton briefly joined that share with a birdie on the 12th but playing partner Noren followed him straight in to open up a one-shot lead once again.
Belgium's Colsaerts then seemingly came out of nowhere to challenge as he went eagle-birdie-birdie-birdie from the 12th and added another gain on the last to come home in 30 and set the target at 12 under.
Noren had been a cool customer all day, though, and he put his approach to the 15th to six feet and rolled home to give himself some breathing space before Hatton birdied the last.



LEADING FINAL TOTALS
par 288 (4x72) 
274 Alex Noren (Sweden) 70 66 68 70
275 Tyrrell Hatton (England) 70 70 66 69

276 Nicolaus Colsaerts (Belgium) 74 70 66 66, Danny Lee (NZ) 71 66 70 69, Matteo Manassero (Italy) 71 67 68 70
277 Andy Sullivan (England) 70 70 68 69, R Ramsay (Sco) 72 68 70 67
278 Callum Shinkwin (England) 74 69 70 65, Jorge Campillo (Spain) 72 66 72 68
279 Russell Knox (Scotland) 72 70 70 67, Patrick Reed (USA) 75 70 67 67, Graeme McDowell (N Ireland) 70 69 69 71 (T10)
281 David Drysdale  (Scotland) 72 74 66 6, Phil Mickelson (USA) 76 69 70 66, Preem Meesawatt (Thailand) 74 70 70 67, Mikko Ilonen (Finland) 71 71 71 68, Richard Sterne (S Africa) 71 73 68 69, Henrik Stenson (Sweden) 76 69 66 70, Chris Paisley (England) 73 68 69 71, Martin Kaymer (Germany) 72 70 68 71  (T13)

SELECTED TOTALS
282 Steve Stricker (USA) 74 71 70 67, Padraig Harrington (Ireland) 70 69 72 71 (T21)
286 Jack Doherty (Scotland) 72 73 69 72 (T45)
290 Marc Warren (Scotland) 73 69 75 73 (T62)
295 Jamie McLeary (Scotland) 74 72 74 75 (T74) 

TO VIEW ALL THE TOTALS 

CLICK HERE

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Copyright © Colin Farquharson

If you can't find what you are looking for.... please check the Archive List or search this site with Google