US PGA TOUR
The fourth and final round of the John Deere Classic occurred on Sunday at TPC Deere Run, Illinois with last year’s winner Steve Stricker once again proving he was the best in the TPC field; winning a tidy $792,000US in prize money, two strokes ahead of Paul Goydos. Stricker’s first, second and third round scores of 60, 66, and 62 respectively, put him in good stead to win the title; but his final round suggested otherwise. Paul Goydos was able to shoot a 66, whilst Stricker shot a 70, just enough to hold on to victory with a score of 258.
Australasian players’ scores: Matt Jones 5th, 64 67 66 70, Greg Chalmers T12th, 68 70 67 66, John Senden T12th, 70 66 65 70, Rod Pampling T15th, 67 67 69 69, Jason Day T15th, 66 71 66 69, James Nitties T21st, 64 69 69 71, Aaron Baddeley T39th, 64 68 74 69 and Steve Elkington T39th, 67 70 70 68, Mark Hensby T65th, 70 64 73 72; Missed cut: Mathew Goggin, Stuart Appleby, Jarrod Lyle, Tim Wilkinson, Michael Sim, Nathan Green, Marc Leishman, Cameron Percy, Aron Price, David Lutterus.
EUROPEAN TOUR
Loch Lomond played host to the Barclays Scottish Open and the fantastic show that went with it on the weekend, with Italian Edoardo Molinari joining his brother Francesco in winning a European Tour title. Francesco finished joint fourth in this year’s competition, watching his brother’s every move as he won the tournament. It could mean the two will both make their Ryder Cup debut in October, and if so, it will be the first time that two brothers have played together in a Ryder Cup tournament since Bernard and Geoffrey Hunt in 1963. Edoardo’s final round, although leaving some to be desired in the tough conditions, was enough to secure the Italian his first European Tour win and €601,600 prize money. He had scores respectively of 66 69 63 and 74 with a total of 272. The best-performing Australian was Marcus Fraser who shot rounds of 73 71 69 and 70 with a total of 283 to finish joint 16th.
Australasian players’ scores: Marcus Fraser T16th, 73 71 69 70, Richard Green T41st, 69 72 70 78, Mark Brown T45th 70 74 67 79; Missed cut: Rick Kulacz, Danny Lee, Robert Allenby, Peter O’Malley, Scott Strange, Michael Campbell, Andrew Dodt, Brett Rumford.
NATIONWIDE TOUR
28-year-old Peter Tomasulo has come from behind to win the Ford Wayne Gretzky Classic at Georgian Bay Club, Ontario, by one shot on the weekend. His final round score of ten-under-par, 61 saw him come from eight shots behind the leader Kevin Chappell to finish one shot ahead of runner-up Keegan Bradley; a total of 24 shots under par. Chappell had shot three marvellous rounds of 61, 63 and 68 only to shoot a 71 in the final round, clearly inferior to Tomasulo’s 61 and Bradley’s 65. Tomasulo said of Chappell’s performance, “To be honest, I thought he (Chappell) was uncatchable because of the way he played the first three rounds.” Tomasulo pocketed $144,017US for the win. Scott Gardiner was Australia’s leading performer, finishing sixth with scores of 67 67 67 66; a total of 267.
Australasian players’ scores: Scott Gardiner 6th, 67 67 67 66, Gavin Coles T7th, 67 67 65 69, Bradley Iles T27th, 69 66 70 68, Won Joon Lee T54th, 67 70 68 72; Missed cut: Nick Flanagan, Adam Bland, Alistair Presnell, Andre Stolz, Andrew Buckle, Ewan Porter, Steven Alker, Bronson La’Cassie, David McKenzie, Phil Tataurangi, Stephen Leaney, Paul Gow.
CHAMPIONS TOUR
The first non-exempt winner of the European Senior Tour in four years is Englishman George Ryall as of Sunday. Ryall put most of his efforts into holding off 2001 PGA Championship winner Andrew Oldcorn to win by one stroke at Royal Haagsche Golf and Country Club in the Netherlands, winning € 37,500 prize money. Oldcorn began the final round leading by two strokes, but a birdie by Ryall on the 18th sealed his victory. Oldcorn’s birdie putt on the 17th lipped out and only a par was manageable for him on the 18th, allowing Ryall to win the tournament. David Merriman had the best score of the Australians, shooting a 72 69 73 to finish joint twelfth.
Australasian players’ scores: Simon Owen 8th, 73 71 67, David Merriman T12th, 72 69 73, Mike Clayton T16th, 73 69 73, Peter Fowler T30th, 72 73 72, Graham Banister T37th, 74 74 71, Mike Harwood T42nd, 74 78 68, Noel Ratcliffe T42nd, 71 77 72, Terry Gale 77th, 81 81 78.
JAPAN TOUR
Saturday’s final round of the Japan Tour brought a new winner to the table in Takashi Kanemoto. Set at Otone Country Club, Kanemoto won the tournament one stroke ahead of runner-up Makato Inoue. Kanemoto shot a 70 in his first round, putting him in a reasonable position to begin, but still four shots off the first-round leaders; Yui Ueda and Sung-Joon Park. Kanemoto shot second and third round scores of 66 and 68, respectively, to put him in a favourable position. The tight competition between Inoue and Kanemoto continued into the final round this weekend when Inoue shot a 65 with Kanemoto achieving a 66. Kanemoto’s previous round scores allowed him to win The Championship by Lexus by just one stroke, with aggregate of 270. Kanemoto won ¥30,000,000 for the victory.
SOUTH PACIFIC
NSW’s Steven Jeffress 70 71 77 won the SIFA Samoa Masters in a play-off from Brad Shilton 73 72 73 on Saturday after both tied on a two over par total for 54 holes. After two disciplined rounds of 70-71 Jeffress went into the final round with a four stroke lead over the consistent Brad Shilton (NZ) 73-72. Shilton put the pressure on from the first hole and after a brilliant 3 under on the front nine the championship was set for an exciting finish. The Le Penina Golf Course for the 2010 SIFA Samoa Masters was at its unforgiving best with strong winds for two of the three days, the punishing 7600 yards and the 6 foot high thick grass that line both sides of almost every hole on the back nine. Jeffress and Shilton came to the final hole of the 2010 $75,000 SIFA Samoa Masters on the same score and with two pars on the difficult par 5 18th hole the Masters went into play-off, and they returned to the 18th tee. Jeffress prevailed with a workman like par after Shilton had pulled his drive left and had to take a penalty drop.