François Calmels secures another title at the D+D Real Czech Challenge Open – Golf News
François Calmels fired back-to-back rounds of 65 on the weekend, to secure his second European Challenge Tour victory of this season at the D+D Real Czech Challenge Open, on Sunday, June 9, 2013.
The Frenchman started his final round campaign, at Golf & Spa Kunetická Hora, three strokes off the pace set by Adam Gee on day three. He then got off to a shaky start, as he recorded two birdies, against the same number of bogeys
over the first five holes that he played.
Another two birdies on the seventh and the ninth hole allowed him to reach the turn in two under.
The back nine of the course witnessed him birdying each of the first five holes, followed by bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie streak to end his fourth round in regulation.
At the end of the day, he found himself comfortably taking the top spot on the leaderboard, having his closest rivals, Robert Dinwiddie, Adam Gee and Sam Walker, finishing three strokes behind him with each scoring a 19-under par
tournament score.
Calmels’ final round score of seven-under par 65 was the lowest score posted, in the final round, by any European Tour winner this season. In addition to that, he also recorded the largest comeback of Sunday so far this season.
“This is totally different to my first win because there I was leading and just built from there, whereas today I started quite far back,” said Calmels, who also won the Challenge de Madrid in April earlier this year.
“I was struggling a lot at the start but then during that birdie stretch I played incredible and made every putt. I saw that guys were four shots better than me during the front nine but I kept telling myself, ‘You’re playing good!’
and I knew that if I could start holing some putts I could put up a fight,” he added.
Brooks Koepka of the United States, in the meantime, climbed 36 places on the leaderboard, courtesy of his course-record performance for a 10-under par 62.His performance included two eagles and six birdies, which allowed him to
finish tied seventh on the leaderboard.
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