Weekly Tour Wrap Up #10th Dec

After the shortest of breaks, the 2013 golf season got underway last week as the European Tour staged its first tournament of a 45-event 2013 schedule.

In South Africa, a 29-year-old Scot recorded his first European Tour victory in a tournament that was reduced to two rounds because of incessant rainfall.

In Thailand, a former major champion won for the first time in more than 20 months, and in Australia, a 53-year-old overcame 80km/hour winds to become the oldest winner of his national open.

Jamieson triumphs in Durban

Scott Jamieson beat Englishman Steve Webster and Eduardo de La Riva of Spain in a play-off to win the inaugural Nelson Mandela Championship at Royal Durban Country Club.

The event was curtailed to 36 holes and the course’s par reduced to 65 after a series of storms and torrential downpours. Indeed, in the last two months, Durban has received a year’s worth of rainfall.

No play was possible on Thursday or Friday, and it was South African Tim Clark who sat pretty atop the leaderboard after Saturday’s first round.

He was joined on five-under-par by little known Dane Madsen Morten Orum, who was making his first start as a full member of the European Tour after finishing 16^th at Q-School last month.

De La Riva sat in a sizeable group in a tie for fifth on three-under-par, with Webster one behind and Jamieson six off the pace after an inauspicious opening 66.

The trio were all early starters on Sunday morning, and had to wait all afternoon to see if their seven-under-par totals would be good enough to get them into a play-off.

Webster posted a bogey-free 60 to join Jamieson, who surged through the field with a brilliant second round 57.

He turned in three-under-par 31, but the fireworks really began on the back nine, where he made six birdies in eight holes – including four twos – from the 11.

The Scot’s joy was a stark contrast to the emotions felt by De La Riva, who bogeyed his final hole when a par would have been enough for victory.

Clark – the only challenger from the late starters - was also left dismayed after a double-bogey at the par-4 17^th dropped him out of a share of the lead.

To rub more salt into the wound, the Spaniard – who graduated from Q-School for the first time in 10 years - was the first to be eliminated in extra holes after failing to get up-and-down from sand at the long par-4 18^th.

Webster and Jamieson headed back down the 18^th, and the Scot was crowned champion when the Englishman failed to save par following a pulled approach.

Schwartzel on song in Thailand

Charl Schwartzel shot a closing 65 to post a 25-under-par 72-hole total and win the prestigious Thailand Golf Championship by an amazing 11-shots at the Amata Spring Golf Club.

Thailand’s Thitiphun Chuayprakong finished in second place alongside Masters champion Bubba Watson, with Sergio Garcia alone in fourth place on 14-under-par.

It was a wire-to-wire victory for the South African, who won his first professional event since birdieing the final four holes to claim the 2011 Masters.

He opened up with a flawless round of seven-under-par 65 and posted the same score on Friday, having played the first 36 holes without dropping a shot.

He was four clear of Sweden’s Daniel Chopra at the halfway stage, and looked poised to improve on his second-place finish behind Lee Westwood in 2011.

He extended his lead to five shots after Saturday’s play, and gave the chasing pack no hope with a fine bogey-free display on Sunday.

Schwartzel turned in four-under-par 32 after birdies and one, four, six and nine, and went six under for the round with two more at 10 and 11.

Five straight pars would follow, before a birdie two at 17 and a solid par at 18 secured the largest victory of Schwartzel’s professional career. His 11-stroke victory margin was also the third highest in Asian Tour history.

Senior battles home in Sydney

Veteran Australian Peter Senior carded a final-round 72 to record a four-under-par total and win the Emirates Australian Open by one stroke from compatriot Brendan Jones at The Lakes Golf Club.

The 53-year-old finished two clear of Cameron Percy in third and three clear of world number four Justin Rose, who ended the week in a tie for fourth place.

The final round of the tournament was delayed by three-hours after gale-force winds descended upon Australia’s South-East Coast. At one point, a television tower was even blown into a bunker.

Senior – who plays full time on the Champions Tour in America – was two strokes behind PGA Tour player John Senden with 18 holes remaining, but performed adeptly in the 80 km/hour winds.

Senden and Rose, the two biggest names on the leaderboard, both struggled in the conditions, and shot rounds of 82 and 76 respectively.

Senior would capitalize, responding to bogeys at five and seven with birdies at 10 and 12.

Jones gave himself hope with a brilliant eagle three at 17, but Senior used all his experience to par the last six holes and take his home title by one shot. The previous oldest Australian Open Champion was Peter Thompson, who won aged 43 in 1972.

Next week, the second event of the European Tour season, the Alfred Dunhill Championship, takes place at the stunning Leopard Creek in South Africa. The 2013 PGA Tour season starts in the first week of January with the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.