THE PGA European Tour's first six-man play-off left Scotland's Stephen
McAllister the surprise winner of the Atlantic Open at Oporto, Portugal,
in gale-force winds yesterday.
The bespectacled Scotsman holed a 15-foot putt at the short
seventeenth on his way to a 74 and a tie on 288, level par, with Ronan
Rafferty (72), Richard Boxall (71), David Williams (74), Stephen Hamill
(76), and Denmark's Anders Sorensen (77).
Rafferty, who topped last year's European money list, started
favourite to win six-man showdown. But McAllister was the only man to
make a par 4 at the first play-off hole. It was his first tour success.
Rafferty bunkered his second and knocked his recovery in to more sand.
Boxall three-putted and Williams, Hamill, and Sorensen all took three to
reach the green. McAllister was also short with a drive and No.3 wood
but holed from 15 feet for his 4 and the winner's cheque for $53,000.
The other five each earned $19,246.
The former British youth international, whose previous best tour
finish was fifth in the 1988 English Open, said: ''I never expected
level par to be good enough. I wear spectacles and my eyes were watering
in the cold wind and rain. But I just kept plugging away.'' In the
severe conditions all the leaders struggled. Ryder Cup men Sam Torrance,
Des Smyth, and Tommy Horton ran up a 7, 8, and 10 respectively.
American Ronald Stelten, who led by two strokes overnight from
Sorensen, took 40 to go out and, needing a par 4 to tie, pulled his tee
shot into the sand dunes and took 5 for an 80 and 289.
Sorensen led with two to play after getting up and down from a bunker
at the sixteenth but was bunkered again at the seventeenth to drop a
stroke.
Northern Ireland's Hamill had three birdies in the last five holes and
hit the cup with his second shot at the last only to miss for a birdie
from five yards.
Britain's Steven Richardson, the English amateur champion playing in
his first tour event as a pro, ended in a tie for seventh place on 289.
Leading final aggregates and scores: (British unless stated):
288 -- Stephen McAllister 71, 71, 72, 74 (won at first hole in six-man
play-off); Richard Boxall 71, 73, 73, 71; Ronan Rafferty 72, 70, 74, 72;
David Williams 70, 71, 73, 74; Stephen Hamill 71, 67, 74, 76; Anders
Sorensen (Denmark) 68, 73, 70, 77.
289 -- Steve Bowman (US) 71, 73, 73, 72; Miguel Angel Jimenez (Spain)
73, 68, 72, 76; Steven Richardson 72, 70, 71, 76; Ross Drummond 70, 73,
70, 76; Ronald Stelten (US) 70, 69, 70, 80.
290 -- Santiago Luna (Spain) 72, 72, 70, 76; Des Smyth (Ireland) 69,
73, 70, 78.
291 -- Peter Baker 72, 71, 74, 74; Paul Carrigill 73, 71, 73, 74;
Manuel Moreno (Spain) 75, 72, 70, 74; Miguel Martin (Spain) 71, 71, 74,
75.
292 -- Mariano Aparicio (Spain) 72, 72, 74, 74; Emmanuel Dussart
(France) 71, 73, 74, 74; Daniel Silva (Portugal) 70, 76, 71, 75; Steven
Bottomley 69, 72, 75, 76; Roger Chapman 71, 70, 75, 76; Denis Durnian
74, 71, 71, 76; Peter Smith 70, 69, 73, 80.
FINAL aggregates in the Philippine Open championship in Manila were:
287 -- Robert Pactolerin (Philippines) 68, 75, 72, 72.
289 -- Lee Porter (USA) 72, 71, 72, 74; Lai Chung Jen (Taiwan) 73, 70,
71, 75; Chen Liang Hsi (Taiwan) 74, 69, 72, 74.
291 -- Antolin Fernando (Philippines) 70, 71, 77, 73; Glen Day (USA)
75, 71, 72, 73; Choi Sang Ho (South Korea) 75, 70, 71, 75.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article