Chris Doak wins the Challenge Tour’s ALLIANZ Open de Lyon
Chris Doak parred the third extra hole in the playoffs of the ALLIANZ Open de Lyon, to take home the first ever European Challenge Tour title of his career, on Sunday, October 7, 2012.
The Scot got off to a confident start in the final round in regulation by carding a birdie on the first hole. He then added another four birdies to his scorecard and reached the turn with a four-under par score.
The 15th hole witnessed him take the outright lead with a birdie and he had a great chance to finish the tournament by recording an easy putt on the 18th hole.
However, he was not lucky enough. The ball slid past the cup and he settled for a bogey in the end. As a result, he was tied with Tim Sluiter at the top of the leaderboard and the game entered the sudden-death playoffs.
“I suppose a bit of pressure comes into it, because I had been concentrating on keeping still over my putts, but the job is done so that one doesn’t matter anymore,” Doak said.
“The putt to win was right to left and they are easier than the left to right putts so I was a little bit more confident with that one”.
During the playoffs, both the players parred each of the first two holes and returned to the 18th tee for the fourth time on Sunday.
Thereafter, a wayward tee shot by Sluiter gave Doak an advantage, as the Scottish player managed to finish with a par against Sluiter’s missed chance for a par putt.
“It’s great to have a first win. I feel like it has been coming for a while and finally it is here. I finished well here last year too so I like this place,” said Doak, after claiming the €25,600 winner’s prize.
With his victory, he moved to the ninth place in the European Challenge Tour Rankings. As a result, he has also virtually qualified for the 2013 European Tour card.
According to the qualification criteria, the top-20 players from the Challenge Tour will receive exemptions to play on the European Tour next year.
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