Grateful Hanson cheers Fisher prize

HOWEVER much Ross Fisher enjoyed his Volvo World Match Play win, it was matched by Sweden’s Peter Hanson.

Because Fisher beat American Anthony Kim in Sunday’s final in Spain, Hanson will be playing in this week’s £4million WGC-HSBC Champions event in Shanghai – and that could be his passport to a long-awaited Masters debut in April.

What the 32-year-old calls an “unbelievable” chain of events looked set to deny him a place in China, until Fisher lifted the title this weekend.

“Ross has no idea how much I was rooting for him,” Hanson said yesterday – minutes after landing in Shanghai for a tournament featuring Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and all the leading contenders for the European number one spot.

The story of how he got there starts really in Portugal three weeks ago when he was told he was first reserve for the Match Play Championship.

With Martin Kaymer and Paul Casey yet to return from injuries that had kept them out for two months, Hanson decided to pull out of the Singapore Open and play in the Castello Masters.

He finished eighth there, and that was just good enough to stop sixth-placed Soren Hansen going past him on the money list – important because he thought that meant his spot in the Shanghai field was secure.

But he then received a call telling him that, although Sergio Garcia was the defending HSBC champion, his fourth place in Castellon had taken him ahead of Hanson on the ‘Race to Dubai’ standings – and because of that, Hanson was out.

“I was very upset and had long talks with David Probyn (the European Tour’s assistant director of operations) and then with (chief executive) George O’Grady,” he said.

“I think somebody screwed up to allow the champion to be in such a low category – I can’t understand it.”

But that was the case, and it left Hanson with only one route into Shanghai – Fisher, Oliver Wilson or Garcia had to win the Match Play.

Garcia was out of contention by the end of the first day, and Wilson was knocked out by Robert Allenby on the second. But Fisher went all the way.

If Kim had become champion his spot in China would have been offered to the next non-exempt player on the world rankings, and not to Hanson.

Now he is in, though, and it is a huge opportunity for him to move back into the world’s top 50 and secure a place at Augusta National.

Meanwhile, England’s Ross McGowan is up to first reserve this week because of the withdrawal of Masters champion Angel Cabrera and the cancellation of the US Tour’s Viking Classic because of bad weather.

Ian Poulter’s victory in Singapore did not help McGowan, though, because that place went to the Asian Tour and was filled by Thai Chapchai Nirat.