Levet dishes up tour de force

THOMAS LEVET described himself as living out a dream yesterday when he finally captured the French Open championship 25 years after first playing in it.

Tipped as a possible captain when the Ryder Cup is staged at Le Golf National near Paris in 2018, the 42-year-old local hero triumphed on the course by a shot from England’s Mark Foster and Dane Thorbjorn Olesen. Former Ryder Cup player Levet came into the event ranked 352nd in the world, but from three behind with a round to go, a closing one-under-par 70 gave him a nail-biting victory worth over €500,000.

“It was just crazy – the way it went was just like a dream,” he said after Olesen had missed a four-foot par putt on the last and then long-time leader Foster had left a 20-foot birdie attempt short.

“The people were going ‘Allez, allez, allez’ and some of them go ‘Captain, captain’. The atmosphere was great — I felt like one of the Tour de France riders climbing a mountain.

“I had everyone behind me basically the same as a Ryder Cup and it was the same adrenaline rush.

“I was reaching distances I’ve never reached before, but with experience I knew it was going to happen.

“It’s the first time my kids have seen me win. I’m not done yet!”

With Levet, runner-up to Ernie Els in the 2002 British Open after a five-hole play-off at Muirfield, having qualified for Sandwich last month the one place in the event up for grabs this weekend went to Olesen rather than Foster because of his higher world ranking.

That piled on the disappointment for the Worksop player, who could not hang onto the 54-hole lead for the second week running and has now gone 234 Tour events and more than eight years since his one victory.

Levet’s seven-under total won the trophy and after 11 successive pars at the start of his round Foster was still nine under.

But then came a double-bogey six at the 12th, where he came up short of the green and chipped off the side of it.

He then three-putted the next and parred in for a birdieless 74.

Joint overnight leader James Morrison fared even worse, going in the lake on the first two holes and eventually finishing joint seventh after a 78.

Scotland’s Richie Ramsay resumed only one behind and that is where he still stood until he found water on the 15th and ran up a triple-bogey seven.

That allowed 2009 winner Martin Kaymer through into fourth place, good enough for him to reclaim the world number three spot off US Open champion Rory McIlroy.