Lawrie hails best ever performance with 66

IRELAND’S Peter Lawrie began the New Year is rousing style with what he described as the best he has ever played to record a closing 66 for a share of fifth place in the Caltex Masters in Singapore.

Lawrie began his last round in 28th position but leaped up the leader board when he birdied the second, holed a wedge shot from 90-yards out for an eagle two at the third and then birdied three of the next four holes.

However, a bogey at the ninth seemed to check the Dubliner’s progress. He birdied the 10th and 15th holes and watched agonisingly as birdie putts just missed at 16 and 17 before ending with a bogey.

But despite dropping a shot at the last Lawrie was delighted with his efforts. “I am very pleased and while it is a little unfortunate I didn’t hole enough putts, I played wonderfully today. That round was the best I can play. There are disappointments. I bogeyed the last and bogeyed the ninth by three-putting twice but I went from right on the cut line on Friday to a top 10 in my first event in the New Year. “I really hit the ball in close over the weekend and the work in La Manga with my coach, Brendan McDaid, meant that I could not shoot a good score today.”

Graeme McDowell ended his first event of the New Year with a final round 72 and completing the last six holes in two over par for a four under par tally. Lawrie and McDowell were headed straight for Singapore Airport for their flight to Australia and this week’s Heineken Classic in Melbourne.

Nick Dougherty’s maiden European Tour win was like something out of the movies for the Liverpudlian while for Colin Montgomerie, the man he beat, it was “unbelievable.”

But the 22-year-old’s victory in Singapore is an undeniable fact, even if he was flattered by the five-shot winning margin. A final round of 67 at the Laguna National Golf and Country club ensured a first win on the tour for Dougherty at 18 under par, with last year’s winner Montgomerie settling for a share of second place with Holland’s Maarten Lafeber.

Denmark’s Thomas Björn, who completed the showpiece final three ball with Dougherty and Montgomerie, took fourth place on 11 under par after his closing 72.

*Tiger Woods’s caddie was released from a New Zealand hospital yesterday after having surgery on his left hand after being injured in a car race.