Scott Henderson secures his spot in the Great Britain and Ireland’s PGA Cup team
Scott Henderson of Scotland made an 11th hour qualification to the Great Britain and Ireland team for the PGA Cup, after finishing third at the Titleist PGA Play Offs, on Thursday, December 13, 2012.
According to the policy, the top-three players to finish at the Antalya Golf Club’s PGA Sultan Course will represent the Great Britain and Ireland team in an encounter against the United States team in 2013.
In addition to that, the top-10 players to finish the tournament also confirmed their berths in the 2013 edition of the European Tour’s BMW PGA Championship.
Entering the final round, Henderson was sitting outside the top-10 on the leaderboard, thanks to his one-over par score after two rounds.
He then made a strong move, by carding birdies on the third and the seventh hole. Thereafter, he added another two shots to his scorecard, as he birdied the 15th and the 16th hole.
At the end of the day, he found himself securing the share of the third position, along with Gareth Wright and Greig Hutcheon.
Consequently, the trio entered into the sudden-death playoffs, in a bid to contend for the third and the last spot in the PGA Cup team.
On the first extra hole, Henderson fired a sparking birdie, against Wright’s par and Hutcheon’s bogey putt.
As a result, the former European Tour Rookie of the Year celebrated his success, despite finishing five strokes behind the winner of the tournament, Richard Wallis.
Talking to the reporters after finishing his campaign in Turkey, he said that he was having troubles finding his form, prior to entering the event.
Moreover, he was worried about his chances to make it into the BMW PGA Championship and the PGA Cup. However, the new techniques
that he tried in the second the third round worked for him in the end.
“The first day I was still hitting it poorly but then just stuck with something simple and it seems to have worked and I haven’t dropped a shot since the first hole of the second round,” he said.
He added, “After leaving myself so far back after the first round, the main objective was to get a Wentworth spot, and I had resigned myself that that was all I was going to get but the wind was tricky and some of the boys flagged a bit coming in so one
man’s loss is another’s gain and it’s an honour to be able to play in the PGA Cup”.
Wallis, in the meantime, successfully defended his title, after posting an eight-under par tournament score. The Walmer & Kingsdown Golf Club pro was pleased to secure a comfortable four-stroke victory over David Higgins.
Last year too, Higgins shared the second position, after he finished one stroke behind Wallis, who registered a 13-under par tournament score.
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