MC Henri Lahdenperä +10 (80, 74)
MC Sami Kaunismäki +21 (83, 82)
MC Veli-Pekka Hakala +23 (85,82)
Kytäjä players:
MC Henri Lahdenperä +10 (80, 74) MC Sami Kaunismäki +21 (83, 82) MC Veli-Pekka Hakala +23 (85,82)
0 Comments
The final round of the event was played on another hot and sunny day with just enough wind to make things challenging. The event ended in a playoff after three players had tied on 210 (6 under par), two Germans (Alexander Koller and Felix Banzhaf) and Australian Richard Heath. The playoff took place on the 10th hole, probably the most difficult hole on the course, a long par 4 with bunkers all the way down the left side. Richard Heath found some long grass on the right with his second shot and could only get it to the fringe with his 3rd, after his par chip rolled just past the hole he could only make a bogey. Alexander pulled his second shot with a long iron into the left rough and his chip landed softly and did not run down the slope to the hole, he was left with a putt of about 4m for par. Felix had hit it in the best position from the tee with a much shorter distance for his approach, but he was in the semi-rough and could not quite control his approach which ended up in the rough right of the green. His flop shot from that position was rather unlucky, hitting the bottom of the flag without bouncing and deflecting some 5-6m away. The shot was a good one and would have ended a lot closer if it had not hit the flag. Felix's par putt was a bit of a disappointment, left some 90cm short of the hole... which left the way clear for Alexander to putt for the title. His 4m putt went right in the middle of the hole and the playoff was over. Alexander had led after every round of the tournament and fully deserved his victory. The Finnish players made a strong impact on the final day with Keijo Jaakkola's 68 moving him to -4 for the tournament and a 4th place finish for the second year in a row. Timo Tuunanen's fantastic round of 65, equalling the course record, was the low round of the tournament and was a very impressive result in testing conditions. Andy Fowlie, one of the two Kytäjä players in the field, had just about everything in his round, two double bogeys and four bogeys were partially remedied by 5 birdies and his score of 75 led to a 54 hole total of 217 (+1) and a tie for 11th place, an excellent overall result. Andy's thoughts after the round were as follows:
Niko Helin did not manage to reproduce his form from the 69 on the previous day and ended up in a tie for 35th place after his final round 80.
The final scores can be seen below. The second round was played in beautiful sunshine but with a tricky wind which could not make up its mind about which direction it blowing in. This was a better day for the Finnish players with Niko Helin, Tomi Aronen, Petri Lehto and Keijo Jaakkola all scoring under par. Tomi had a bogey-free round of 69 which was matched by Niko who carded 4 birdies and a single bogey in an excellent round. Petri Lehto from Tali is the leading Finn in the competition going into the final round, his second round 70 took him to -2 for the tournament and a tie for 5th place. Andy Fowlie had a more difficult day but managed to get round the course in a respectable one over 73 to move back to -2 and share 5th place with Petri Lehto. The leader going into the final round is Alexander Koller from Germany who followed up his 66 from the first round with a second round 70 to get to 8 under par, one shot ahead of Lausanne based Australian Richard Heath who showed why his handicap is +4.7 with rounds of 69 and 68 to get to -7. The final member of the leaders group is Felix Banzhaf, also from Germany, who played exceptional golf to get to -9 after 31 holes before suffering a double bogey on the 14th and two further bogeys before nearly holing his second shot on the 36th hole to end the day on -6. This year's European Mid Amateur Championship is being held at Pravets Golf Club, near to Sofia in Bulgaria. This event, a 54 hole scratch strokeplay competition has a field of 113 players from 25 different countries. This year there are 12 Finnish players in the field, including Niko Helin from Kytäjä who finished 14th in this event in 2013. Kytäjä is also represented by the only Scottish player in the field, Andy Fowlie. The course itself is very good and it is in excellent condition. The key to the course seems to be to get your tee shots into play, the fairways are very narrow, especially on the difficult back nine (which is 400m longer than the front nine!), and the rough is pretty wild once you get more than 3-4m off the fairway. The greens are fairly large and have really nice surfaces to putt on so the course offers you the chance to be putting for birdie on many occasions if you avoid trouble off the tee. Day 1The first day of the tournament was played in quite good weather, all day it looked as if it could rain at any moment but for the most part it stayed dry and warm. The scoring was very good with 13 players breaking par and the leading score being a great 66 by Alexander Koller from Germany who took advantage of the easier front nine by making six birdies before the turn! The top Finnish player on Day 1 was Antti Joutsen from Wiurila who played a good round of 71 with 2 birdies, one bogey and 15 pars. Antti was followed by Petri Lehto (72) and Keijo Jaakkola, Kimmo Kemppi (73). Niko Helin from Kytäjä ended up with a round of 76 during which Niko reported to have hit it "all over the place". Andy Fowlie had an unusually good round with 5 birdies and only 2 bogeys to end up with a score of 69, good enough for a tie for 4th place after the first day. Andy's comments were as follows: That was a great start to the week, I have been struggling with my ball-striking for the last 2-3 weeks so I was not very confident going into the round, especially with the way this course places a high premium on accurate tee shots. Once we got going I felt quite comfortable out on the course, hit 11/14 fairways and hit it close to the hole all day, this was a very solid round. I was part of a very good three-ball today, Felix Banzhaf from Germany was the best on the day with a 68 and Antti Joutsen was also under par with a 71, so we were a combined -8 for the day, it can really help if the whole group is playing well. The scores after round one can be seen below (click the picture for a full leaderboard) More updates to follow after round 2 and 3.
Below you can see some pictures from the course and the nearby hotel where all the players are staying, the weather has not exactly been cooperating at the start of the tournament week. The second event on the Tsemppi Tour was played at Vuosaari Golf and won by Alvar Kässi of the home club with a round of 80.
Kytäjä player Teemu Hartikainen finished in 28th place with his round of 106. |
AuthorKytäjän edustuspelaajat Archives
September 2015
Categories
All
|