Sunday, September 25, 2016

Levy beats Fisher with a play-off birdie at 

Porsche European Open

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Frenchman Alexander Levy made a birdie at the second play-off hole to overcome England's Ross Fisher and win his third European Tour title at the Porsche European Open in Germany today.
With the tournament reduced to 54 holes due to fog delays over the first three days at Golf Resort Bad Griesbach, Levy entered the third and final round with a four-shot lead at 17 under after 36 bogey-free holes.
He made three bogeys in his first five holes, though, and with playing partner Fisher closing the gap to one as the pair stood on the final tee, a tense finish was in store.
A closing bogey from Levy meant the pair had to go back up the last and after two pars at the first attempt, the 26 year old Frenchaman holed an18-footer down the slope for a birdie and the victory.

The win makes Levy just the second European Tour player in history after Paul Lawrie to triumph over 72, 54 and 36 holes, following his victories in 2014 at the Volvo China Open and the weather-reduced Portugal Masters.
Levy missed his first three cuts of the season and then had two spells on the sidelines in the summer due to injury but has been in fine form since his return at the start of the month, finishing in a tie for seventh at last week's Italian Open.
"It's unbelievable," he said. "On the 18th putt I saw the line and I said to my caddy, 'I've got it'. I felt good, I felt the speed and I putted it very quickly.
"It's good to have this feeling after two years of no wins, it's very nice.
"It's tough to say that it's the best one [win]. I have a very nice feeling and I worked a lot the last few weeks to have this one. I was close last week but didn't play good on Sunday and this week I managed my things to have this trophy in my hands.
"I didn't play really well on the front nine. I was thinking about the score and not on my own game. I stayed patient and I started to play really well on the back nine."
A 40-foot birdie putt on the second looked to have steadied his nerves after a bogey on the first and he took advantage of the par five third before recording back-to-back bogeys after loose tee-shots.
Another birdie on the par five eighth got Levy back to where he started the day but with Fisher making birdies on the first, third, eighth and ninth, the pressure was on.
Both men took advantage of the tenth but Levy then pulled away as he made it four out of four on the par fives on the 12th before putting his tee-shot on the 14th to 15 feet and getting to 20 under.
The leading duo birdied the 15th but a three-putt from Levy and a 20-foot birdie from Fisher on the next resulted in a two-shot swing and when Levy put his second shot into the spectator area on the last, extra holes were required.
"Hats off to Alex, it's always going to be tough against a great player like him who closed out in Portugal very well," said Fisher. "He got off to a little shaky start so myself and Michael [Jonzon] just needed to put some pressure on Alex from the start.
"I felt like I played pretty flawless on the front side, kept it going on the back. All you can do is hit good putts, I didn't leave one short today which is a positive sign."
Swedish duo Robert Karlsson and Michael Jonzon finished three shots out of the play-off at 16 under after rounds of 65 and 68 respectively.
Karlsson had eight birdies and a double-bogey while Jonzon - who was fourth reserve and only knew he was playing on Wednesday - endured a rollercoaster round, dropping three shots in a row on the front nine from the fifth before bouncing back with five birdies in six holes from the 11th.
Austrian Bernd Wiesberger was then at 15 under, a shot clear of local favourite Martin Kaymer and two ahead of another German in Florian Fritsch, English duo Richard Bland and Matthew Southgate, France's Grégory Havret, Spaniard Eduardo de la Riva and South Africa's Jean Hugo.

FINAL TOTALS
Par 213 (3x71). Yardage 7,188
1Alexander Levy 62   63 69


194
2 Ross Fisher 65   65    64  


194
T3 Michael Jonzon 66    63 68


197
T3 Robert Karlsson 69   63 65


197
5 Bernd Wiesberger 63    68 67


198
6 Martin Kaymer 67 64 68


199
T7 Richard Bland 67 67 66


200
T7 Eduardo De La Riva   68 66 66


200
T7 Florian Fritsch 67 64 69


200
T7 Gregory Havret 68 67 65


200
T7 Jean Hugo 66 66 68


200
T7 Matthew Southgate 66 67 67


200
T13   Magnus A. Carlsson   67 68 66


201
T13 Nicolas Colsaerts 69 66 66


201
T13 Bradley Dredge 68 64 69


201
T13 Tommy Fleetwood 70 65 66


201
T13 Richard Green 67 68 66


201
T13 Mike Lorenzo-Vera 67 70 64


201
T13 Paul Peterson 68 66 67


201
T20 Thongchai Jaidee 69 66 67


202
T20 Renato Paratore 65 71 66


202
T20 Jason Scrivener 64 71 67


202
T20 Fabrizio Zanotti 69 66 67


202
T24 Anirban Lahiri 68 68 67


203
T24 Craig Lee 69 67 67


203
T24 David Lipsky 68 66 69


203
T24 Richard McEvoy 68 68 67


203
T28 Robert Dinwiddie 68 68 68


204
T28 Oliver Fisher 66 68 70


204
T28 David Howell 69 68 67


204
T28 Mikko Korhonen 70 66 68


204
T28 Paul Lawrie 70 68 66


204
T28 Soomin Lee 66 67 71


204
T28 Edoardo Molinari 68 68 68


204
T28 Marcel Schneider 67 69 68


204
T36 Raphael Jacquelin 67 68 70


205
T36 Luke List 68 68 69


205
T36 Steve Webster 66 69 70


205
T39 Lucas Bjerregaard 66 71 69


206
T39 David Drysdale 70 67 69


206
T39 Niclas Fasth 70 66 70


206
T39 Daniel Im 66 72 68


206
T39 Francesco Laporta 67 68 71


206
T39 Thomas Linard 70 68 68


206
T39 Mikael Lundberg 66 69 71


206
T39 Stuart Manley 69 68 69


206
T39 Nicolo Ravano 67 68 71


206
T39 Richard Sterne 69 68 69


206
T49 Daniel Brooks 68 70 69


207
T49 Paul Dunne 66 68 73


207
T49 David Horsey 69 69 69


207
T49 Tom Lewis 67 68 72


207
T49 Prom Meesawat 67 71 69


207
T49 Lukas Nemecz 69 68 70


207
T49 Chris Paisley 71 66 70


207
T49 Jaco Van Zyl 69 67 71


207
T57 Dylan Frittelli 70 68 70


208
T57 Ricardo Gouveia 70 67 71


208
T57 Roope Kakko 68 69 71


208
T57 Thomas Pieters 71 67 70


208
T57 Maximilian Rottluff 67 69 72


208
T57 Justin Walters 66 69 73


208
T63 Trevor Fisher Jr. 70 67 72


209
T63 Joakim Lagergren 67 69 73


209
T63 Jamie McLeary 68 70 71


209
T63 Bernd Ritthammer 70 67 72


209
T67 Ryan Evans 68 70 73


211
T67 Pedro Oriol 70 68 73


211
T67 Marcel Siem 69 69 73


211

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