Marc Warren might consider offering a small ‘thank you’ of sorts to George Coetzee after the hapless South African gifted Warren second place in the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura.
Coetzee was sharing second place with the Scot in the Victoria course clubhouse on 16-under par when he found water left off the tee at the final hole in taking a horror triple-bogey ‘7’ and tumble to a share of seventh.
So, instead of sharing second Warren’s full second-place prize-money, and a cheque for Euro 220,220, has seen him brilliantly jump from 173rd to 100th on the Race to Dubai money list.
It is Warren’s best finish in over two-and-a-half years since he was runner-up also in the 2015 Qatar Masters.
And the result could have been more opportune for the 36-year old Glaswegian to be now ranked 100th and right on the cut-off mark in retaining his Tour card for 2018.
Warren produced the golf to get into second, including a brilliant second round 64, and then capped day four with a second eagle in three days at the par five, 17th after having taken a ‘3’ on day two of the event, and while he dropped a shot at the last it was better showing after a disappointing year in which he had made the cut in just seven of 19 events in travelling to Vilamoura.
Marc Warren on route to 2nd in 2017 Portugal Masters. (Photo – European Tour/Gettys)
“I didn’t look at the leaderboards. I knew the middle of the back nine Lucas was a few in front, so just trying to finish as best as I could. You know, trying not to go chasing it, stay patient,” said Warren.
“Once I birdied 15, parred 16, I was just trying to finish well on the last two. I hit absolutely perfect shots and finished off with a putt on 17 and just couldn’t bring myself to hit the putt firm enough at the last. It was straight into the grain. It was something I struggled with most of the week was leaving kind of longer putts short and got me a bit at the end there. Like I said, the last two holes, really pleased with that.
“I knew going out today, obviously need a good round. You’re in contention and conditions were favourable again. The wind was a little bit less than yesterday. Greens seemed a little bit softer, as well, which helps approach shots. All day I drove the ball as good as I possibly could. Iron play wasn’t quite as sharp as it could have been the front nine but absolutely no complaints. I think it was three or four under the back nine, so really pleased with that.
“It’s just nice to be kind of pretty much 100 percent fit again. You know, like I said, driving the ball as well as I have done, if I keep the driving stats up, short game is pretty good. I think we can have a good, strong finish to the season”.
Denmark’s Lucas Bjerregaad took full advantage of Coetzee’s demise to seal a maiden Tour victory by four shots thanks to a closing 65 and a 20-under par victory tally.
Rookie professional Connor Syme is also celebrating in securing a first pay cheque in the play-for-pay ranks with a superb closing bogey-free 67 for a share of 12th place on 12-under par.
The Drumoig-based Scot capped his round with four birdies from the 12th to 17tH holes but, and in the final wash-up, was left ruing 11 opening pars to fall one stroke shy of qualifying among the top-10 for this week’s British Masters.
Syme had left the course sharing 11th place but then within 30-minutes found himself inside the top-10 only to drop outside minutes later before moving for a tie for 13th ahead of his official placing of 11th.
The young Scot collected a prize cheque of Euro 29,050 (Stg 25,726) that should go to paying a few bills.
Syme had been afforded an invitation to compete on The Algarve and the 21-year old certainly grabbed the opportunity with both hands
“It has been an unbelievable week and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, so I can’t thank the European Tour and Keith Pelley (CEO, European Tour) enough as it was awesome to be out here,” said Syme.
“It was all good fun and my scoring could have been a lot better as I thought my putter was a little cold this afternoon.
“So, I am not complain about being four-under, and bogey-free, as that was good fun”.
The Portugal event was Syme’s third Tour event this year after contesting the Joburg Open earlier in 2017 and then superbly qualifying for The Open at Royal Birkdale.
“The thing is I know I can compete at this level and this result is encouraging going forward,” he said.
“Of course, this is just the start of my pro career and it is going to kick-on from here, so I will take plenty of encouragement from a good last day low number.
“It was good to keep any mistakes off my card while my caddy was a bit help today help picking the right numbers and flags to go at and what I do need to learn going forward, so it was good fun.
“So, this week was mega-encouraging. It’s also exciting, for sure as I did not know where I was playing last week and not knowing if was going to get into this event or not and it was great to take advantage of the opportunity to play here.
“So, I can’t everyone enough who made this opportunity possible.”
OTHER SCOTS
Scott Jamieson (68) – 273; Paul Lawrie (67) and Russell Knox (71) – 276;
