Monday, July 18, 2016

Paul Lawrie hits Jean Van de Velde with five-birdie 

performance to win by 4 and 3 

Paul Lawrie beat his 1999 Open adversary, Jean van de Velde, by 4 and 3 in the annual Farmfoods PLGC Challenge Match at the nine-hole, par-3 Ardoe venue.
It had been scheduled for nine holes but Jean, looking to get some more golf under his belt ahead of the Senior Open at Carnoustie later this week, asked for it to be an 18-hole contest instead.


The standard of golf was good from the off with both players birdieing the first hole. Paul then holed a 10ft birdie putt at the second, while Jean missed from about half the distance.  Paul one up.


At the third, Paul’s ball found the fringe of the green about 15ft from the flag. Jean failed to get up-and-down from the steep slope at the front of the green.  Paul’s par was good enough for him to go two up.

Halves in 3s at the fourth and fifth were followed by another birdie for the host at the sixth, putting Lawrie three up on his challenger.  The seventh was halved as both players, (no more than 10ft away with their tee shots, narrowly missed their attempts for 2s.

Van de Velde pulled his tee shot at the testing eighth hole, missing the green by 20ft left.  He recovered beautifully with a flop shot to 4ft but could not convert the putt and Paul’s two-putt for a 3 was good enough to see him reach the ninth tee four up.
The ninth they halved in par and then both players birdied 10.  Jean then birdied the 11th to claw the match back to three down.


Two more birdies followed at the tough 12th before Paul hit a stunning six-iron at the 183yds 13th, setting-up his fifth birdie of the day and moving him into a four-hole lead again.


The host closed-out the match with two further pars which Van de Velde could not better and they shook hands on the 15th green with Paul the victor by a margin of 4 and 3.


A crowd of nearly 300 came out to enjoy the free exhibition match.
 
 

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