Mehaffey drops out of "Darius Rucker" lead with a 79

Curtis Cup player Olivia Mehaffey (Arizona State University) dropped out of the lead with a second-round 79 (eight over par) for a 36-hole tally of 145 in the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate 54-hole tournament at Long Cove Club, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Without a birdie on her card, Olivia bogeyed five holes in a row from the eighth to the 12th inclusive. Then she had a double bogey 6 at the 14th and yet another bogey at the 17th in halves of 38-41
Mehaffey starts the final round in T13 position, seven shots behind the new leader, Claudia de Antonio (Louisiana State) (67-72), who has a two-stroke advantage over Lauren Stephenson (69-71) at the head of a quality field of 93 college players.
Leona Maguire (Duke) (72-74) is T16 on 146 while her twin sister Lisa is T46 on 151 (76-75).

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Sam Horsfield finishes second behind

George Coetzee at Tshwane Open

EUROPEAN TOUR COMMUNICATIONS

Sam Horsfield enhanced his growing reputation on the European Tour as he pushed George Coetzee all the way before finishing second at the Tshwane Open today.
The Englishman came through all three stages at Q-School to win the final stage by a commanding eight shots after firing a closing 63 in Tarragona in November.
He made the semi-finals of the ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth in February and completed his best finish at a European Tour stroke play event as he finished two shots behind Coetzee at Pretoria Country Club.
His 64 on Saturday was his best round as a professional and earned him a place in the final group alongside Coetzee - who had a vociferous home support behind him at the course where he is a member.

The hooter sounded for a storm delay as Coetzee and Horsfield walked off the 15th green and the 21 year old returned to finish birdie-birdie-birdie as he continues to find his feet on the big stage.
"It was a great experience being in my first final group," he said."George is a great guy, we got talking a little bit out there. Being in a group with someone who is really nice kind of settled me down a little bit early on and I had a blast out there"This week you've got to hit a lot of wedges into the greens which was nice. I was able to hit a few of those close, especially on 17, that was a good number
"I was trying to make eagle coming up 18 but it is what it is and I had a great time today.Mikko Korhonen finished a shot further back as he continues to search for a first win on Tour but he led by two on the front nine before coming home in level par as Coetzee surged ahead.A bogey on the 17th after the delay realistically ended his chances but he bounced back with a birdie on the last and was pleased with his work in South Africa.

"A good week," he said. "The back nine wasn't really what I was expecting but the front nine was good, I got the lead there and just couldn't get anything going on the back nine.
"After the delay I hit a couple of really bad shots. We've had this before so you kind of know what to expect."
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
par 284 (4x71)
266 George Coetzee (SAfr) 67 64 68 67
268 Sam Horsfield (Eng) 68 69 64 67
269 Mikko Korhonen (Finland) 68 64 69 68

SCOTS' TOTALS
271 Scott Jamieson 67 69 67 68 (7th)
275 Connor Syme 70 68 68 69 (T11)
283 Grant Forrest 70 70 76 67 (T59)
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Queenslander Nisbet wins New Zealand 

Open, thanks to last-round 62

A stunning Sunday 62 has seen Queenslander Daniel Nisbet become the 99th winner of the ISPS HANDA New Zealand Open.

Nisbet ran down West Australian Terry Pilkadaris’ five shot overnight lead with an eagle and four straight birdies on the back-9 to finish on 27-under 258 with rounds of 63, 66, 67, 62.

Nisbet’s four round total saw him break the tournament low score, 26-under, set by the late Kel Nagle in 1964.

“We have some great family ties with Kel Nagle. One of my neighbours who recently passed was a great friend with Kel and they kept him updated with my very junior golf. It is a surreal thing to be put up against him and beat his record when there is so much extended family history with him,” said Nisbet.

“I’ve been aggressive all week so I just wanted to stay aggressive and attack the pins and I just wanted to hole a few more putts.”

Nisbet had eaten into Pilkadaris’ buffer over the first-9 holes, but it looked as if he was starting to run out of time to haul him in.

An eagle on the 460m par-5 10th hole for the second time in as many rounds helped Nisbet to a share of the lead, before a blistering four birdie finish secured him the Brodie Breeze trophy and a rousing round of applause from the crowd surrounding Millbrook Resort’s island 18th green.

The win is a deserved reward for the hard work Nisbet has been putting in with his team.

“I played really well this week; I played really well two weeks prior as well. What this leads to in the future, I don’t know,” added Nisbet.

“My coach, Richard Woodhouse, my wife Ashley, she does all my training for me, all my programmes - we just want to keep doing the same thing, it’s working at the moment. Hopefully I’ll get a few more starts out of this win and try and replicate it.”

Nisbet collects AU$191,522.61 for the biggest win of his career as well as three guaranteed starts on the Japan Tour, the rest of this season and the next on the Asian Tour and through until the end of 2020 on the ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia.

Pilkadaris began the day hoping to break a 13-year winning drought which had included six runner-up finishes.

Having dined out on a birdie buffet for most of the week, he had to wait until the 11th hole before he recorded his first red number and then was helpless to stop Nisbet from running away from him over the final four holes, finishing in second place at 25-under the card.

“I didn’t make enough birdies, it’s as simple as that. I didn’t make any mistakes, just didn’t hole the 10 footers that I had been making,” said Pilkadaris.

“At the start of the week if you’d said I’d shoot 25-under, you’d be like ‘yeah I’ll take that’. It’s disappointing not to win, but 62 to beat you, it’s one of those things.

“On a five shot lead, you know with good weather conditions that someone is going to go low. I thought I plotted my way around the course really well, gave myself the chances, I just didn’t hole the putts.”

American Jarin Todd finished third on 22-under the card while a shot further back and rounding out the top-5 was Kurt Kitayama (USA), David Bransdon (VIC) and Callan O’Reilly (NSW).

The ISPS HANDA PGA Tour of Australasia will now take a break until April when it travels to Royal Port Moresby Golf Club for the SP Brewery PNG Open Championship.

Michelle Wie grabs victory at  Women's World Championship

By Andy Charles

SKYSPORTS.COM 
 

Michelle Wie holed a putt from just off the green on her final hole to win the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore by one shot today.

Wie captured her first LPGA tournament since the 2014 Women's US Open in thrilling fashion after four players went down the final hole with hopes of victory at Sentosa Golf Club.

The 28-year-old broke out a group sitting on 16 under thanks to her lengthy last-hole effort, but still had an anxious wait to find out if she would win the title as the final group came down the 18th.

Earlier, Jenny Shin held the outright lead when she teed off at the last, but her only bogey of the day would prove a costly one as she dropped into what turned out to be a four-way tie for second.

Shin was overtaken by Wie when she made her unexpected birdie at the 18th, but there were still more chances for rivals to tie the Hawaiian, with Nelly Korda and Danielle Kang within a shot in the final three-ball on course.

Kang and Korda both found the last green in regulation, with Korda only leaving herself an eight-foot putt to secure a place in a play-off alongside Wie.But, after watching Kang miss from long range, Korda was unable to convert for birdie, meaning the first prize went to Wie, who had completed her superb final round in 65

The missed birdie putts capped frustrating days for Kang and Korda, who were unable to convert a number of chances to add to the advantage they had taken into the final day.

Korda parred her last eight holes in a round of 71 and Kang had chances galore but failed to pick up a single shot in the last 14 holes of her two under 70.

Their playing partner Brooke Henderson finished with a birdie to card 68 and move into the tie for second, which also included Shin after her final round of 65.

Earlier on, South Korea's Sei Young Kim set a tournament record with a round of 62 to move into the top 10, and her round could have been even better but for a bogey at the last.

Frida Kinhult and Billy McKenzie win Spanish amateur titles

Frida Kinhult (Sweden), pictured, has won the Spanish women's amateur international championship for the second year in a row.
She beat Spain's Natalia Aseguinolaza by one hole in the 18-hole final at Montecastillo.
Her older brother Marcus is a European Tour pro.

SEMI-FINALS
F Kinhult (Swe) bt A Nobilio (Ita) 1 hole.
N Aseguinolaza (Spn) bt R Meekers (Netherlands) 1 hole.

FINAL
Kinhult bt Aseguinolaza 1 hole.

32nd qualifier McKenzie wins Spanish men's final

In the 36-hole, all-England Spanish men's amateur champianonship final, Hampshire left-hander Billy McKenzie was five up after 24 holes against Alex Fitzpatrick, from Hallamshire, Yorkshire, at La Manga. Fitzpatrick is young brother of European Tour pro and former world No 1 amateur Matthew Fitzpatrick.
McKenzie, who was 32nd of the 32 qualifiers for the match-play stages with a pair of 77s, eventually beat Fitzpatrick 3 and 2.

McKenzie's biggest title win so far ...

ENGLAND GOLF REPORT

 Hampshire’s Billy McKenzie won an all-England final against Yorkshire’s Alex Fitzpatrick to become the 2018 Spanish international amateur champion at La Manga. 

The 23-year-old from Rowlands Castle won the biggest title of his career so far on the 34th hole of the final, defeating his opponent 3/2. “It’s unbelievable,” he said afterwards. “To win one of these big match play events is a dream come true.” 

 

McKenzie is the seventh English winner in the last 15 years and follows in the footsteps of such players as Danny Willett, who went on to win The Masters. 

 

But his mentor in this event was another Hampshire golfer, Scott Gregory, who was the 2016 Amateur Champion and a losing finalist in the Spanish amateur of the same year. 

 

“I’m very close with Scott, we have the same coach, and we have been pushing each other on. I’ve seen his successes and watched him grow as a player and go on to great things. He’s been giving me advice this week and telling me to bring it home, which he couldn’t!” 

 

McKenzie just scraped into the match play stages in the 32nd and final spot after an anxious wait at the end of the 36-hole qualifying. But from then on his trajectory was rapidly upward – he defeated top qualifier and England international Jake Burnage (Saunton, Devon) by one hole in the first round and gained steadily in confidence. 

 

“I wanted a decent result to start the season and felt that getting to the last 16 would be acceptable. After that I just freed up and played it one game at a time and it became, if not easier, but less pressured.”

 

McKenzie’s closest shave was in the quarter finals where he had to go to the 20th, but he won his semi-final 5/4 and soon took charge in the final, leading by three holes after the first 18. 

 

He pushed further ahead after lunch, getting to six up after 22 holes. But then Fitzpatrick (Hallamshire) launched a fightback and after 32 holes only trailed by two. However McKenzie won the 33rd to return to three up and after the players halved the 34th the title was his. 

 

McKenzie is continuing a strong tradition of winning Hampshire golfers, starting with Major champion Justin Rose, who tweeted his good wishes. On the amateur front, Gregory and Harry Ellis (Meon Valley) have kept the Amateur Championship in county hands for the last two years. 

 

“We are one big team, we all support each other and I couldn’t hope for a better band of lads to push for me this week, as I have pushed for them in other tournaments,” said McKenzie, who helped Hampshire win the 2017 English Men’s County Championship. 

 

The Spanish Amateur was overall a great showcase for English golf. Not only was it an all-England final but, thanks to Robin Williams (Peterborough Milton, Northamptonshire) three English players reached the semis. 

 

In total eight English players were in the matchplay, filling one-quarter of the available spots. Burnage and Todd Clements (Braintree, Essex) went out in the first round, while Joe Long (Lansdown, Gloucestershire), Tom Sloman (Taunton and PIckeridge, Somerset) and Gian-Marco Petrozzi (Trentham, Staffordshire) reached the last 16. 

 

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Image below of Billy McKenzie with the Spanish trophy is reproduced by courtesy Adolfo Luna, Spanish Golf Federation 

 

INDIA’S SHARMA ON THE CUSP OF GLORY AT 

WGC-MEXICO CHAMPIONSHIP

NEWS RELEASE
Young Indian prospect Shubhankar Sharma will face the most important 18 holes of his golfing life yet on Sunday after he bravely maintained his overnight two-shot lead over the third round of the US$10 million World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship.

The 21-year-old Sharma ground out a two-under 69 which included a clutch 13-foot par save on the 18^th hole at the Club de Golf Chapultepec as he held off the likes of Phil Mickelson (65), Tyrrell Hatton (64), Sergio Garcia (69) and Rafa Cabrera Bello (69) on Saturday.

World No. 1 and defending champion Dustin Johnson shot a 68 to share sixth place, three behind Sharma, who was literally taken the world by storm with a measured and composed performance this week.

With so much at stake where a victory over the game’s top stars will be worth US$1.7 million in prize money, an exemption onto the PGA TOUR through the 2020-21 season, 550 FedExCup points and starts in almost every major championship including THE PLAYERS Championship this season, the talented Indian is looking forward to the final round.

“Obviously a dream come true for me to be playing in this tournament and obviously leading, that's just fantastic.  Really happy with the way I played today, stuck in there. I made a few mistakes on the greens but the greens are tough this week so I think everyone's making a few mistakes. I wasn't too hard on myself.  Very, very happy that I could grind out a par on the last hole,” said Sharma, who is making his debut appearance in the World Golf Championships.

Sharma broke through with his maiden victory at the Joburg Open in December and followed up with another triumph at the Maybank Championship in Malaysia last month where he came from four shots back to win with a closing 62.

In his biggest test yet, the current No. 1 on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and Asian Tour’s Habitat for Humanity standings will be grouped with five-time major winner Mickelson and England’s Hatton as he bids to become the youngest player to win a World Golf Championships tournament and only the second Asian after Hideki Matsuyama of Japan to do so.

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Meghan MacLaren claims first Ladies 

European Tour win at NSW Open

By BETHAN CUTLER, LET PRESS OFFICER

England’s Meghan MacLaren held her overnight lead to win the Women’s New South Wales Open and claim her first Ladies European Tour title in Australia.

MacLaren, 23, from Northamptonshire, carded a level par final round in hot and humid conditions to finish on 10-under-par 274 (71-67-65-71) and win by two strokes at Coffs Harbour Golf Club.

LET rookies Casey Danielson from the United States and Marita Engzelius from Norway ended two back alongside Silvia Bañon from Spain.

MacLaren’s first Ladies European Tour win comes in her 11th event, but she had previously won two titles on the LET Access Series as well as the circuit’s order of merit in 2017.

Her father, David MacLaren (Staysure/Seniors Tour CEO) who flew in to caddie for her over the final two days.

The second-year professional looked on course for the win after making two birdies in her first three holes to build a four-stroke advantage. Although she bogeyed the seventh, she made another gain at the ninth, to hold four-shot lead through the turn.

Danielson had four birdies on the front nine and added another at the 12^th, but there were no further gains and it wasn’t enough to beat MacLaren, who three-putted the 13^th and dropped another shot after missing the 17^th green.

Engzelius, a former Symetra Tour player competing in only her second LET event, also had a level par round featuring a bogey at the seventh and a birdie at the 11^th and second-year professional Bañon had a steady round of three-under, but two strokes was the closest they came all day. 

“It feels incredible. I didn’t think those words would be coming out of my mouth so soon!” said MacLaren, who thanked her dad for carrying the bag over the weekend.

“All parts of my game were good. To go out there today and to still feel in control of my ball striking and all of that, it gave me a little bit of margin for error towards the end.

“I played well in the few events that I played last year, but you’ve got to be patient. It can take some players years before they get over the line. To do it now gives me a lot of confidence.

“I struggled a little bit out here in Australia and had a few ups and downs with my game, but you only have to look at the pictures back home in England to know that that’s not the place to be. The course set-up every single week over the last few weeks has been fantastic. Both the LET and the ALPG have done a fantastic job.”

Sweden’s Camilla Lennarth tied for fifth with Germany’s Olivia Cowan, Lydia Hall of Wales and Australian Sarah Kemp on seven-under, with fellow Australian Rebecca Artis, Swede Daniela Holmqvist and Austrian Sarah Schober a shot back.
Kylie (Walker) Henry finished T24 on 285 (72-69-74-70) while Michele Thomson (Meldrum House) fubusged T37 on 288 (71 74 70 73).

MacLaren joins a select list of Women’s New South Wales Open champions, including former world number ones Dame Laura Davies (2008) and Lydia Ko (2012), European Solheim Cup star Caroline Hedwall (2011 and 2013) and 2015 champion Holly Clyburn, in the fourth and final Australian event co-sanctioned by the LET and the ALPG in 2018.

The Ladies European Tour now heads to South Africa for the Investec South African Women’s Open in Cape Town. 

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