By David Ferguson
Yet another European Tour event ran to a playoff, when the 72 regulation holes on the Albatross course of the Open de France at the Golf National in Paris ended in a tie between first-day leader Martin Kaymer of Germany, and England star Lee Westwood. Kaymer emerged victorious from the playoff.
|
|
|
A happy Martin Kaymer reflects on his victory in the Open de France
|
Kaymer and Westwood were the only two players who looked like winning the tournament in regulation. They played steadily throughout, collecting a series of birdies, and ended up together on a thirteen-under total of 271.
Most would have picked Westwood's experience to edge the playoff against Kaymer's studied calm. "I'll go with Westwood," said spectator Martin Lunnon, an Englishman who lives and works in France near the Golf National. "He's been through this kind of pressure before and he ought to be able to deal with it."
But strangely, it was Westwood who made the strategic mistakes – one on each shot he played.
Kaymer was first up as the players made their way back to the 18th tee. He hit a 3-iron, as he had done in regulation play, but pushed it right and into the rough. At that point the key objective for Westwood was simply to keep his ball on the fairway. Instead he hit his driver even further right than Kaymer.
Again it was Kaymer to play first, and this time he pulled his six-iron way to the left of the green. It only just cleared the water, coming to rest on the bank of the lake a foot or so on the good side of the hazard markers, leaving him miles from the hole and with a very difficult chip shot to execute.
Westwood had a poor lie, but a much shorter shot than Kaymer's had been. At this point the key objective was simply to put his ball anywhere on the green – that would have been more than enough to secure the advantage. Instead, he hit it into the water.
|
|
|
Having just birdied 11, Lee Westwood waits to tee off on 12
|
Kaymer then played a very good chip, but he was still left with a twenty-foot putt. At this point the key objective for Westwood was to put his ball as close to the hole as possible. From the drop-zone twenty or thirty yards from the hole you would have expected him to knock it to three or four feet at worst, and force Kaymer to sink his putt. Instead, he only just cleared the water, and left himself with a longer putt than Kaymer's.
Westwood therefore putted first, but missed the target by a good long way, leaving Kaymer two shots for the championship under no pressure at all. He duly obliged with the first.
"I hit the same iron as I had done 20 minutes before, but it was just a weak shot," he said. "It was an decent lie and I thought that I could easily get it over the water. I had 180 yards with a six iron, but I pulled it a little bit, which probably turned out to be a good thing, as I carried the water by a couple of feet or so. A straight shot might not have made it.
"With the chip over the bunker down to the flag I just wanted to make sure that I kept the ball short of the flag because there was a danger of losing it off the back of the green into the water. After Lee's fourth shot I knew that I had at least one putt for the tournament, and after his fifth shot I knew that I had two. I managed to sneak the first one in on the left hand side."
