Goosen pushed all the way by gallant McGinley

RETIEF GOOSEN last night effectively gave up his crown as European number one despite claiming his second victory in the 34th and final Lancome Trophy.

Goosen saw a five-shot lead reduced to just one on the back nine before seeing off the challenge of Ryder Cup hero Paul McGinley to complete a wire-to-wire victory.

The South African carded a final-round 70 for an 18-under-par total of 266, four shots ahead of McGinley with England’s Ian Poulter sharing third place alongside France’s Raphael Jacquelin a shot further back.

It was Goosen’s fourth victory in France and the £209,000 first prize gave him an outside chance of topping the Order of Merit for a third successive year.

The 34-year-old still trails compatriot Ernie Els by £1 million, but with almost £1.5 million up for grabs in the next three events, could still have pulled off an unlikely hat-trick.

However, the 2001 US Open champion then revealed he was not playing the lucrative Dunhill Links championships, with a first prize of more than £500,000, and will play in America that week instead. “It’s a great event and it’s nice to see them put that sort of prize money in but it’s not a format that suits me,” said Goosen, now 10th in the Order of Merit. “Last year at Kingsbarns, we played six-and-a-half-hour rounds and, in that kind of weather, sitting on every tee for 20 minutes, I get stiff too quickly.” Goosen began the day three shots ahead and stretched his lead to five after he birdied the first and playing partner McGinley bogeyed.

That left Nicolas Colsaerts to take up the chase and twice he succeeded in reducing his deficit to two shots. First, he eagled the sixth from 25 feet while Goosen took six, and after Goosen birdied the seventh, the young Belgian birdied the eighth. Goosen went three clear again on the ninth when Colsaerts found trouble off the tee, but there was more drama to come at the 11th.

With McGinley sitting just eight feet from the hole, Goosen took two to escape from rough to the right of the fairway to make bogey, while Colsaerts escaped at the first attempt from a similar spot only to find the water at the back of the green. That led to a double-bogey six and after Goosen missed for par, McGinley holed to close the gap to one shot.

Goosen could be forgiven for thinking back to 2001 when he lost a four-shot lead with four holes to play against Sergio Garcia, but he responded to the threat in style with birdies at the next two holes, the second from a matter of inches, to edge three ahead again.

That proved decisive and Goosen’s path to victory was sealed when both McGinley and Colsaerts ran up double-bogey sevens on the 16th.

“It was tough because I was really struggling all day, especially with my driver,” added Goosen, who was victorious here in 2000 and has also won two French Open titles.”

McGinley had the consolation of moving to the top of the fledgling Ryder Cup points standings with his second place, although this was only the second counting event in the race to qualify for Bernhard Langer’s European team which will defend the trophy at Oakland Hills next year.

“I needed to make a birdie on the 16th but my tee shot finished behind a tree and I made seven, and after that I was battling for second which fortunately I got.”