‘Strange’ win admits Levy

Alexander Levy has won the Portugal Masters after the event was reduced to 36 holes as more rain battered the Oceanico Victoria Golf Club yesterday.

The tournament had already been reduced to 54 holes after heavy rain on Thursday evening and Friday meant many players could not start their second rounds until the weekend.

And Levy and playing partner Nicolas Colsaerts had played just a single hole of their third and final round yesterday when the heavens opened once more, drenching the course, with organisers deciding at approximately 3.15pm that the result would be decided on 36-hole scores.

That meant the Frenchman, who had recorded rounds of 63 and 61 claimed his second European Tour win, following his victory at the Volvo China Open in April.

Levy was one of the lucky ones who managed to get his second round completed on Friday meaning he did not play at all on Saturday and he admitted it was a strange feeling to have won after playing only two rounds.

“It’s special,” he added. “Because you are only on 36 holes but after Friday night I knew I would only play 54. But it’s a special feeling at this time.”

Levy will now head to Kent to play in the World Matchplay before he approaches the Final Series as the Race to Dubai reaches its conclusion.

“I’m going to try to play like I played the first two rounds [here],” he said. “I’ve impressed myself with the way I’ve played golf and I think I need to continue like that.”

Tournament director Jose Maria Zamora explained that an errant weather forecast had not helped organisers in their contingency plans but stressed he felt the right decision had been made.

“It’s very tough. We were confident that we would be able to play this third round today,” he said. “The forecast today wasn’t that bad so we thought it would be really nice to give a clean third round to the sponsors here in Portugal and have a nice end of the tournament.

“Unfortunately we’ve been hit by a very heavy downpour, followed by another [one] an hour later which made the golf course go completely under water.

“There are important facts here which is mainly the sponsors and obviously we have to take into consideration that we have got tournaments far away in Hong Kong — if we delay the guys will not be able to play practice rounds. We have two tournaments next week.”