Angry Els starts a storm of his own after Shanghai `chaos'
Less than 90 minutes play was possible in the final round before the threat of lightning at Tomson Golf Club forced the players off the course.
Three-and-a-quarter hours’ play was eventually lost and the prevailing view among the players was that the fourth round should be abandoned and the tournament reduced to 54 holes.
Only 21 players had made it onto the course, many players had already checked out of their hotels and were trying to catch flights home via Hong Kong yesterday, with several playing in this week’s Italian Open in Milan.
With Els already holding a five-shot lead the result of the tournament looked a foregone conclusion but the decision was taken to resume play shortly after noon, with the event extending into today.
“I guess they want to play 72 holes but the guys going to Italy have no chance now,” said Els, who faced a five-foot birdie putt on the seventh green when play resumed at 7am local time today.
“For some reasons the sponsors want 72 holes but the players are not too happy. This weather was supposed to come in on Saturday but if it didn’t come yesterday it was going to come today. I suppose the question is why not play off two tees instead of one and try to get the thing done. It is always easy to question afterwards but that is the way the players feel.
“We will ask questions until we are blue in the face but we are where we are and we have to deal with it. We never get consulted.
“I want to get back to the hotel as quickly as possible and now I have to explain to my kids why I am not coming home tonight. I don’t know how they are going to take it.
“Then I’ll have to be back here tomorrow for seven in the morning and hopefully finish and win, but I think it’s just chaos now for everybody. Everybody needs to get back to the hotels, book back in, flights are missed now. It really is chaos.”
If there had been any doubt about the outcome before the final round started, it was quickly dispelled when the final group eventually teed off at 4.30pm local time.
Mark Campbell was forced to battle with the elements as well as the tough Open Championship links on the final day of the Lytham Trophy.
The 25-year-old from Stackstown, who made the cut with nothing to spare at three-over-par, was out first accompanied by a marker and ran quickly ran into a thunderstorm.
“The rain was so heavy it nearly flooded the first green,” he said. “I three-putted it then double bogeyed the next which was not surprising because the I was unable to warm-up on the range due to lightning.”
Campbell, along with the weather, settled down and did his best to repair the damage, signing for a 76. His final round was four shots better, reaching the turn in one-under on his way to a 72 for a 293 total, 12-over-par all told.
“I settled for that after the morning,” he added. The North West’s Michael McGeady, the only other survivor from the original seven-strong Irish contingent, also endured the worst of the weather which he blamed for leaking four shots on the first nine holes on his way to a 78.
His final round was a happier story, reeling off a hat-trick of birdies from the fifth as he posted a 71 as he matched Campbell’s aggregate. Winner was Gary Lockerbie who virtually assured his place in the Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team to face the United States in Chicago in August when he overcame a three-shot deficit after 10 holes.
David Higgins finished as the leading Irishman in a tie for seventh place at the European Challenge Tour’s Peugeot Challenge R.C.G El Prat was enough to keep the Waterville professional at the top of the Challenge Tour Rankings.
Higgins, who has now won 63,359 this season, finished the tournament at the Real Club de Golf El Prat in Barcelona on three over par 291 after a final round 70 left him four strokes behind the winner Tomas Jesus Muñoz of Spain.
England’s Lee James and South African Michael Kirk shared third place on one over, while Michael Hoey was the next best Irishman on seven over, and Colm Moriarty a further three shots back.
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