Paul Lawrie outsmarts Jason Day and Sergio Garcia to land the Qatar Masters title
Paul Lawrie’s run to the top slot at Commercialbank Qatar Masters where he carded his 11th professional victory has been nothing less than an impressive performance in his age.
The 1999 Open champion took over the likes of Jason Day, Peter Hanson and Sergio Garcia, all of whom have been in their top forms coming out of the last season.
The Scott pulled in an impressive seven-under, 65 on the final day, to stay ahead of the raging competitors and managed to take his second round lead all the way to the final day.
"I played lovely all week. But today I think tee to green, apart from my tee shot on 10th, I can't play much better than that," said Lawrie.
He continued, "I actually felt I left three or four putts out there and got it around to 7 under on a golf course where the greens were pretty firm”.
Lawrie, who started off the final day with a one-stroke lead over nearest competitor Nicolas Colsaerts, had to fall back on the front nine with only one birdie on eight-hole stretch.
Just when PeterHanson was closing up on the grizzled Scott, he pulled in a brilliant eagle to reclaim his threatened lead.
Garcia also had an amazing run at the front nine when he carded no fewer than six birdies in opening 11 holes and was poised to take it all the way to the top.
The Spaniard managed to snap out of his long winless streak last year with two back-to-back titles on his home ground, and is currently brimming with his newly gained confidence.
He made the turn to a lacklustre back nine, carding just two birdies and dropping two shots.
"Obviously, when we got going nicely after 11 today, we had a chance of winning," said Garcia. "Unfortunately, things kind of started going the wrong way".
Day probably had to pay for his sloppy round on the second day where he was only able to card a level-par round, which pushed him down the leaderboard.
He came back with an impressive knock on the final day, carding seven-under, 65 but not good enough to overpower the grizzled Scott. The Aussie dropped two shots in the 18-hole stretch to loss two precious points.
"I played great golf coming in. I just didn't putt that great," Day said.
Day has come out of a brilliant season last year, finishing for a runner-up in both Masters and the US Open at Congressional.
He is now hoping to get a break through earlier in the year to continue his trailblazing golf in the rest of the season.
Many of the top-ranked players in the field, failed to make an impression, finishing down the leaderboard. First round leader John Daly finished for an outright fourth.
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