Sunday, May 3, 2009

Levet victorious at Spanish Open

FINAL LEADERBOARD (GB & Ireland unless stated):
-18 T Levet (Fr) -16 F Zanotti (It) -14 T Bjorn (Den), Peter Lawrie
Selected others: -7 S Dodd -6 S Davis -3 J Daly (US)


Thomas Levet
Levet's victory was his first since last season's Andalucia Open

France's Thomas Levet captured his fifth European tour title with a two-shot victory at the Spanish Open.

The 40-year-old rolled in seven birdies in a final-round 68 in Girona to finish with an 18-under-par total of 270.

Italy's Fabrizio Zanotti had nine birdies in his 65, the best round of the day, to take second place.

Defending champion Peter Lawrie, from Ireland, shot a 69 to share third place on 14 under par with Dane Thomas Bjorn who fired a closing 66.

Levet began the round with a two-stroke lead but soon lost it as England's Stuart Davis, 561st in the world rankings, birdied the first three holes.

However, the 35-year-old from Derby found the pressure of chasing a maiden tour win too much and his back-nine card included five bogeys and a double-bogey six at the 14th and a round of 78 left him tied for 15th place.

"I don't know what happened. It all fell apart and I couldn't stem the tide.

"I got so many bad breaks as well to compound the errors. I kept trying to do the same things, but everything I did went wrong," he said afterwards.

Lawrie did his best to become the first player since 1953 to win the title in successive years and eagled the 7th after a superb fairway wood to five feet.

He later added birdies at 14 and 15 but it was enough and when Levet rolled in an eight-footer at 15 for his sixth birdie of the day he was two in front once again.

A three at the 17th settled the issue and Levet afterwards dedicated his win to Spanish golf legend Seve Ballesteros, who underwent four operations late last year after the discovery of a brain tumour and is still having chemotherapy.

"I always think about Seve, he is having a hard time at the moment," he said.

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