India’s Ajeetesh Sandhu, joint second here in 2017 when the event was last played, Ian Snyman from South Africa and Ben Campbell from New Zealand, also went low, carding 63s.

Phachara Khongwatmai from Thailand and Korean Meenwhee Kim returned 64s in the $1 million event, that is the 18th event of the season on the Asian Tour.

Lee is the highest ranked player in the field in 46th place on the Official World Golf Ranking and proved that today, firing an eagle, eight birdies and one bogey, which came on his first hole, the 10th.

“A 62 anywhere is a really nice score,” said the 25-year-old from Perth, who is the younger brother of LPGA Tour star Minjee Lee.

“Especially on a course like this: it was tricky, and the wind got up. It was really nice to really drive it well and capitalise on those drives.

“There are a few holes you can hit driver and a few I didn’t just because we saw some stats from before indicating holes where not so many birdies are made. We were aggressive, smart, smart aggressive. It worked out pretty well. Drove on the fairway most of the time and had wedges in. It was an early start today, 4am wake up, so keen to get back to the room and have a snooze.”

Lee, a two-time winner on the DP World Tour, was helped by playing with countryman Scott Hend and Hong Kong’s Taichi Kho, recent winner of the gold medal in the Asian Games.

He said: “It is one of the better groups I have had all year around. Taichi is around my age, and we can talk about anything and Hendy, I have known him since being a pro on the European Tour, so it’s been really good fun and we all made a lot of birdies.”

While Lee played his round in the morning Drysdale was in the afternoon session, starting on the first hole.

A flawless 62 from David Drysdale to tie the opening round lead with Minwoo Lee ?@vicky_drysdale #SJMMacaoOpen2023 #whereitsAT pic.twitter.com/OZvq84y5Ah

— Asian Tour (@asiantourgolf) October 12, 2023

He birdied the first two and made three-in-a-row from the sixth to make the turn in five under, before more gains on 10, 12, 14 and 15.

“I missed makeable birdie putts on the last three holes, including a 10-footer on the last,” said the 48-year-old, who played in Europe for over 20 years before successfully negotiating this year’s Asian Tour Qualifying School.

“However, I would have taken a 62 at the start of the day. I have shot 10-under before in a tournament. The first time I played the course was yesterday in the Pro-Am, and that was in a buggy!”

He is proving to be one of the leading ‘rookies’ of the season, especially after tying for third in the Mercuries Taiwan Masters last month.

Currently in 49th place on the Asian Tour Order of Merit he is looking for another good week, in order to secure a top-60 finish on the Merit list and keep his Tour card.

Sandhu missed the early part of the season due to a sore back but has gradually been returning to form, as he demonstrated today.

“I was injured for the first half of the year,” said the Indian, who has one win on his Asian Tour resume, the Yeangder TPC in 2017, as well as five runner-up finishes.

“It was nothing too serious, it looked like it could have been a back issue, but the spine is absolutely fine. It was more a ligament tear on the SI joint. I was just over-golfed. Last year, I played all the tournaments in India, chasing the Order of Merit, and on the Asian Tour. At the Saudi International [the first event this season] it just kind of gave up. I was out until May. Took a bit of time to get back into it but the game is in a good place. I was at home for two months, didn’t touch a club.”

Like Lee, and Campbell, he started on the back nine today and made an eagle, on the second, the same as Lee, and recorded seven birdies and a bogey.

He finished three shots behind compatriot Gaganjeet Bhullar here six years ago and feels his game is a match for the Macau course.

“This is a course where you cannot get ahead of yourself. You have to position yourself on every hole, and that suits my game a bit more, you have to be patient. You can’t overpower it in anyway,” he said.

“I think the course is playing easier than the past years. Usually, it is a lot firmer and faster, but it is a little bit softer because of the rain and the typhoon, so I think that is playing a little bit into our hands. It should firm up at the weekend with the sun being down and the wind picking up. Today was a lot easier than what I am used to here. Glad I was able to take advantage of it.”

Phachara had looked to be on course to easily better the nine under mark when he went to nine-under after 14, but surprisingly he pushed his tee shot out of bounds on the par-four 16th. His ball landed on the out of bounds line and unluckily he was forced to play his provisional. He signed for a double-bogey.

Main image: Min Woo Lee. Asian Tour

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David Drysdale will be looking to use local knowledge and 21 years of DP World Tour experience to his advantage at this week’s International Series England and in the St Andrews Bay Championship the following week.

At 48 years of age the Scot is revelling being a rookie on the Asian Tour, having negotiated the Qualifying School in January, and now has the added bonus of competing in two events on his home patch: Close House, in Newcastle, and Fairmont St Andrews, north of the border.

He is one of only a few Asian Tour members to have played both courses in tournament conditions on the DP World Tour in recent years and is hoping to capitalise on the opportunity.

“Yes, it’s cool. I never thought when I went to Q school in January that I’d end up playing two events close to home,” said Drysdale, who lives near Dunbar, in Scotland. “And funnily enough I live right in the middle, 90 minutes from Close House and 90 minutes from Fairmont St Andrews. So, a little bit too far to travel [and stay at home] but yeah, really looking forward to it. I can’t wait.”

Drysdale carded a final-round 67 to secure his Asian Tour card by one shot at the Qualifying School and has impressed on Tour, particularly in the World City Championship at the Hong Kong Golf Cub, where he tied for ninth.

It follows a well-documented marathon career on the DP World Tour — where he competed from 2002 to 2022, playing 575 events.

Events at Close House, on the Colts Course being played this week, are included in that monumental figure.

He said: “I played the British Masters [at Close House] first in 2017, and then again as one of the first events back in the UK after COVID in July 2020. It’s a nice golf course with a lot of undulation change.”

Drysdale has played three DP World Tour events at Fairmont St Andrews: the Scottish Championship in 2020 and the Hero Open in 2021 and 2022, and will be up to date on what to expect with the course condition as he went on a scouting trip there a few weeks ago.

“Yeah, I played it on a pretty terrible day, Tuesday a few weeks ago, it was like 12 degrees, raining and a two-and-a-half club wind,” he said.

“You call it a links course, but it’s on the cliffs, sort of 10 minutes east of St Andrews, on the coastline. There’s only a couple of holes that are actually really on the coast, but it has like an inland feel. Turf wise, it’s not like links sandy turf. It’s pretty wide off the tee, big greens, gets pretty windy. It’s very exposed, I mean the back of 16, two yards over the 16th green, there’s a wall and probably a 200-foot drop down into the sea. Yeah, looking forward to it, it’s an absolute bonus for me getting a card at the Asian Tour Q-School and having two events virtually on my doorstep.”

Drysdale has his of wife, manager and caddie Victoria back on the bag this week, after a recent foot issue meant she was missing at Indonesia Open, two weeks ago.

“She’s actually had plantar fasciitis in the right foot, so she had an injection a few weeks ago, cortisone, and seemingly that takes that away,” explained the Scot. “She’s feeling an awful lot better. She decided to miss Indonesia, just to give herself some more rest, a couple more weeks.”

Drysdale has unfinished business on Tour. Without a win on the DP World Tour, where he finished second on four occasions, coming closest in the 2020 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, where he lost a sudden-death play-off, he is looking to rectify that by winning on the Asian Tour.

He said: “There are a lot of good players out here on the Asian Tour, there’s a lot of guys that have played on the European Tour in the past, so they’ve got a lot of experience of doing that as well. But I guess I have a little bit of home advantage …”

The post ‘Rookie’ Drysdale hoping to capitalise on home advantage appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There have been close calls along the way, of course. It would be wrong to say that Drysdale was not capable of winning on tour. Four second-place finishes, three thirds and 29 top-10s dot the 47-year-old’s record, en route to more than €6 million in earnings.

But no victories, a fact that is a matter of extra regret now that Drysdale, after 27 years as a professional, has lost his exempt status on the tour. A lowly 158th on the DP World Tour rankings this season, Drysdale failed by four strokes to progress through the second stage of the three-step Qualifying School last week. Given his age apart from anything else, it all adds up to the possible end of an era.

As an example of perseverance and, on more than one occasion, brinksmanship in the face of both success and failure, Drysdale’s career is one that should be admired. More than once he has been extremely unlucky not to pick up what would have been the most popular victory on what was for most of his professional life the European Tour. More than once he has missed retaining his card by one agonising spot on the money list. More than once he has survived — just — with late, status-saving heroics.

Still, for all that, a 35-foot putt he holed across the final green of the final tournament of the 2014 season to save his competitive life remains a career highlight. And for all that his pulling up in the 121st and final exempt place on the 2021 rankings repeated the closeness of that call, it is to the 2020 Qatar Masters that we must turn to see just how cruel a game golf can be.

David Drysdale’s five-hole playoff loss to Jorge Campillo at the 2020 Qatar Masters was his most painful near-miss. Warren Little

The record book will show Spain’s Jorge Campillo won the last event before a COVID-induced four-month shutdown at the fifth hole of a sudden-death playoff with Drysdale. But that bald fact only hints at how unfortunate the runner-up was that day. Here is how it went:

• After lipping-out from 15-feet for victory on the 72nd green, Drysdale split the fairway (as he would do four more times) on the Education City Golf Club’s 510-yard par-4 18th. He then hit his 6-iron approach to 10 feet. Campillo drove into sand and did well to reach the green with his second shot.
• Campillo then holed for birdie and Drysdale followed him in.
• One hole later, Drysdale was three feet from the cup in 2; his opponent was 25 feet away.
• Campillo then holed for birdie and Drysdale followed him in.
• On the third, after Drysdale made a safe par, Campillo holed from eight feet to stay alive.
• The fourth was uneventful; both men two-putted for par.
• And on the fifth, Campillo holed from 35 feet for birdie, before Drysdale missed from 20 feet.

“Fair play to Jorge,” says Drysdale now, the pain not quite absent from his voice as he revisited that moment in a conversation last week. “He wasn’t swinging well and hit the ball all over the course. But all of those putts went right in the middle of the hole, perfect pace, which is quite incredible, when you know you have to do it. I’d be lying if I don’t look back and feel disappointed though. Had I won, I would have been exempt to the end of 2023.”

That would have taken Drysdale to the brink of his 49th birthday and the near completion of a plan that would have seen him depart the DP World Tour on his own terms.

“I had always planned to play until I was 50 then take up an all-time money exemption on the Legends Tour,” he says. “And I still want to give the Champions Tour qualifying school a go at this time in 2024. But all of that is dependent on what I do for the next two years. All of this has come along a little early for me. But I have no one to blame but myself.”

Well, yes and no. While Drysdale is quick to admit that his putting has never been the best part of his game and so contributed to his inability to win, his strength has largely been overtaken by advances in technology. For more than a decade, the former assistant professional at his home club of Dunbar in East Lothian has averaged between 280 and 290 yards off the tee. Every year since 2011 he has ranked inside the top 25 in driving accuracy; five times he has been inside the top 10. This year, however, his 285.63-yard average ranked only 162nd on tour in distance.

At least for Drysdale, those sorts of statistics are nothing new. At age 17, he got an early taste of what it is like to be out-driven by a substantial margin. Acting as a marker, he played alongside then PGA champion John Daly in the final round of the 1992 Open Championship at Muirfield.

“It was the most nervous I’ve ever been my entire career,” recalls Drysdale. “I played with [former US Senior Open and PGA champion] Roger Chapman on the Saturday. Then Daly on the Sunday, first game out. I’d never seen anyone hit a ball like he did that day. With the old equipment and ball, it was mind-boggling how far he hit it. He drove the second hole. And he had 9-iron to the fifth, the par 5. I was driving well and was nowhere near him. He was just different at that time.”

More recently, the point that the more things change (and age), the more they tend to stay the same was underlined. But not in a good way.

David Drysdale’s optimistic attitiude is blostered by his wife/caddie, Vicky. Stuart Franklin

“I’ve only felt short since 2017,” says Drysdale, whose wife, Vicky, doubles as his caddie. “My driving accuracy is great but there isn’t much benefit from that. The courses we have played the last couple of years have made the tour a lot different from what it was pre-COVID. Not in terms of difficulty. Hitting the fairway has never meant less than it has post-COVID. It’s just bomb it as far as you can these days, which is not an excuse for my poor play. It’s the same for everyone every Thursday morning.

“Now I struggle to keep up,” he continues. “I’m as long now as I’ve ever been. But I’m getting shorter relative to my competition. Long-hitters used to stand out. Now they don’t. All the young kids coming out now hit the ball ridiculous distances. I played in Madrid [at the Open de España] last month. The sixth hole there had a stream across the fairway at 290. Been going there since 2002, and I’ve never seen anyone fly that. Everyone hits a hybrid off the tee and a 6-iron to the green. But this year I played with Henni Du Plessis and Yannik Paul. They both hit driver and had wedges to the green. I can’t compete with that over four days.”

Indeed, that was certainly true in 2022, a season that ironically ended with Drysdale’s best finish, a tie for eighth in the Portugal Masters. Ever on the edge, had he shot one-stroke lower he would this week be playing in that final stage of the DP World Q School.

“I’m actually feeling fine,” Drysdale claims. “You never think it is going to end. But it does at some point. And yes, it is all a bit raw at the moment. I’ve had 21 seasons on tour. Normally I’d be getting ready to go to South Africa. Then the Middle East. This will be my first winter at home for a long time. It’s been a whole season of struggles though. I’ve had no consistency. My iron play has been poor. I’ve been missing greens from the fairway a lot. I’m not sure what happened really.

As his age has crept up, health has become a bigger variable. He had COVID in early June and struggled with a neck injury since. He withdrew or retired six times during the 2022 season. “Some weeks I’m fine and other weeks I can’t play,” he says. “You can’t compete at tour level when you’re not 100 per cent. But the bottom line is I just haven’t played well enough.”

As for the future, Drysdale has options. He is fully exempt on the second-tier Challenge Tour, even if the prospect of playing with “all those kids” has little appeal. The Asian Tour Q School in January is a possibility. And it is likely that such a long-standing tour stalwart could garner one or two invitations to DP World Tour events.

Whatever comes to pass though, David Drysdale will be trying to win. He always has.

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The post The most hard-luck pro in DP World Tour history is doing what he does best — pressing on appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

So freaking classy. My apologies to cardigans everywhere. Arnie knew what’s up. Anyway, here’s what other important (and not-so-important) topics have us talking this week.

WE’RE BUYING

Tyrrell Hatton: In your face, Paul Azinger! At least, that’s what a lot of Europeans were feeling after the Brit won his first PGA Tour title—just a few months removed from wrist surgery (more on that later)—at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. And what a hard-fought victory it was as Hatton became the first player to win a PGA Tour event with two over-par scores on the weekend since Geoff Ogilvy at the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot.

Kevin C. Cox

Also, how good has this Florida Swing been? So much carnage! And we have another Winged Foot U.S. Open to look forward to in June! What a time to be alive! Except for that whole Coronavirus, of course.

European Tour playoff: The Qatar Masters was a wild ride down the stretch as Jorge Campillo went double bogey-bogey to drop into extra holes. But there, both he and David Drysdale put on a show, each birdieing the 18th hole TWICE (not a par 5, mind you) to keep things going. A third birdie by Campillo on his fifth attempt gave him his second win on “that” European Tour. Good for him, although most were rooting for the 44-year-old Drysdale to win his first in his (gulp) 498th start. Imagine getting into a playoff after all that time, coming up clutch with birdies on the first two extra holes, and still losing? Poor guy.

The Canadian Open(?): Oh, Canada! Thanks to a new metric (MOCCASINS) conceived by Golf Digest’s Shane Ryan and brought to life by stats guru Mark Broadie, this tournament in the Great White North has been deemed the greatest of all non majors. OK, so it’s just a seven-year sample size, but the RBC Canadian Open came in at No. 1 among regular events when it comes to producing the best leader boards based on its field during that time span.

Michael Reaves/Getty Images

The top three tournaments overall—again, according to MOCCASINS—were the PGA Championship, the Open Championship, and the Masters. Sorry, U.S. Open. But don’t worry, you’re still No. 1 in my unofficial CARNAGE ranking.

Rich Beem: The 2002 PGA champ and three-time PGA Tour winner has gotten very familiar with the/that European Tour thanks to his role with Sky Sports the past five years and he joined this week’s Golf Digest Podcast to discuss Azinger’s comments, his infamous victory shimmy, and the player he has a self-professed man-crush on. This was a fun one:

https://soundcloud.com/user-96678684/rich-beem-best-pga-tour-leader-boards

WE’RE SELLING

Rory McIlroy on Sundays: A quick look at the numbers reveals Rory has shot 67-68-69-73-68-76 on Sundays this season. Not bad, right? Well, sometimes stats don’t tell the entire story. McIlroy had those last four tournaments in his hands and didn’t convert any of them into wins. The good scores came thanks to late pushes after he had already lost the tournament. And the bad scores, like Sunday’s 76 at Bay Hill, may have been enough to keep his top-five streak alive, but they were, well, bad.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Look, no one is immune to final-round pressure (other than peak Tiger), but I’d expect an all-time great—which he is as further evidenced by him becoming the third golfer to be ranked World No. 1 for 100 total weeks—like McIlroy to not play like a mere mortal on Sundays.

Brooks Koepka on any day: The four-time major champ’s struggles reached rock bottom (we think) with an accidental tribute to Kobe Bryant on Saturday. On the bright side, Koepka improved on that 81 by 10 shots on Sunday, but offered this blunt assessment of his game after. “Still shit. Still shit. But putting better.”

Matt Sullivan/Getty Images

He’s right, it was better as he finished 44th in strokes gained putting among the 69 players who made the cut. For the season, though, he still ranks 208th(!) in that stat. Woof.

Tiger Woods’ new (sad) schedule: We talked last week about Woods opting to stay away from back-to-back starts, but now he seems to be staying away from non-major starts in general with his decision to skip this week’s Players Championship. The 44-year-old with a fused back is getting closer to a post-crash Ben Hogan (another big cardigan guy) schedule and as sad of a prospect as that is for golf fans, I don’t blame him. Heck, I’m not even 40 yet and I worry about throwing out my back every morning I get out of bed. Those weighted blankets are no joke.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour continues its Florida Swing with the Players Championship, AKA the PLAYERS, AKA that place where even Tiger Woods made a quadruple bogey on the island hole last year. At least Tiger fans don’t have to worry about seeing something like that again with Woods sitting out this week. By the way, I also happen to be a late scratch from TPC Sawgrass, unfortunately. And it has nothing to do with Tiger not being there. I swear. OK, well, maybe it has a little bit to do with that. . .

Random tournament fact: Despite all the debating, the Players Championship is not a major. However, TPC Sawgrass could wind up hosting one this year.

I'm told officials from the PGA Tour and PGA are discussing a contingency plan that could move @PGAChampionship from Harding Park in San Francisco to TPC Sawgrass. PGA statement below. #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/vb1JhQtNUp

— Robert Lusetich (@RobertLusetich) March 9, 2020

As much fun as that would be, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Stay safe out there, folks. And remember to keep washing your hands.

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—Tiger will play as many events as Sungjae Im this year: 1-MILLION -to-1 odds
—Brooks Koepka will win the Players: 45-to-1 odds (Actual odds. . . value?)
—The Ponte Vedra Beach Chili’s will do a lot less business without me in town: LOCK

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

That’s the infamous Hinkle Tree being removed from the Inverness Club. The tree, which was planted by the eighth tee before the second round of the 1979 U.S. Open to keep players (notably Lon Hinkle) from using a shortcut to reach the par 5 in two, was cut down after winds recently uprooted it. So RIP Hinkle Tree, but what you stood for won’t be forgotten by the USGA. Protect par at all costs. Even if that means buying a tree for $120 during a golf tournament.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Another week, another full-court putt made at a basketball game. This time the prize was. . . free bacon for a year?

This guy won free bacon for a year… FREE BACON FOR A YEAR!!!

Congrats to Logan for sinking today’s @smokehousemeats Putt for Pig Challenge at @MizzouHoops home finale.#SCTop10 #MIZ ??? pic.twitter.com/dOSlnVEP2m

— Mizzou Athletics (@MizzouAthletics) March 8, 2020

As far as prizes go, this isn’t quite as good as a free car that 84-year-old lady recently got, but it’s a heckuva lot better than the pile of scratch-off tickets the Knicks recently gave some dude for hitting a half-court shot. And in terms of free food, you could do a lot worse than bacon. Mmm. Bacon.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I drank a lot of red wine and played Xbox.” —Tyrrell Hatton on what he did while recovering from his wrist surgery in November.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5dWtRonM0N/?utm_source=ig_embed

Right now, there are a lot of college kids wondering why they aren’t better at golf.

THIS WEEK IN PGA TOUR PRO-WAGS PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8sWLc0FnPx/?utm_source=ig_embed

OK, so that is a few weeks old, but it’s the most recent photo we could obtain of this cute couple. Why are we highlighting the Baddeleys, you ask? Because Golf Digest’s latest PGA Tour pro survey OFFICIALLY (sort of) answered an often-asked question concerning WAGs and Richelle came out on top:

Good job by Dave Shedloski and John Huggan doing some important reporting. Just imagining Huggy asking that question made my week. Anyway, the magazine even included this fun illustration:

So congrats to Richelle! And congrats to Aaron! Good going, guy!

THIS AND THAT

Tommy Fleetwood’s active-leading PGA Tour cut streak ended at 33. Pretty good for someone who has only won on that European Tour. . . . Congrats to Ernie Els on winning his first PGA Tour Champions title in his third start and for easily being the guy PGA Tour pros would want on their side in a bar fight, according to our survey. The Big Easy may have been a unanimous choice if he wasn’t 50. . . . The PGA Tour’s new TV deal ensures CBS will continue to broadcast at least 19 events through 2030. In other words, Golf Twitter has something to collectively bitch about for another decade. . . . And as always, my wife—who gets my vote for “best-looking golf writer WAG”—made me this delicious M&M and Kit-Kat encrusted chocolate cake for my birthday:

Although this year, she had to substitute some Cadbury milk chocolate bars around the perimeter because someone* (*me) had already eaten some of the Kit Kats. Anyway, I’m not complaining.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Would Tiger have played if this week was the Masters?
What tree/bunker/lake would you remove from your home course?
What item of food would you like to win a year’s supply of?

The post Tiger Woods’ new (sad) schedule, Tyrrell Hatton’s fun rehab routine, and PGA Tour pros pick the “best-looking” WAG appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
Jorge Campillo and David Drysdale each had time to clear their minds during the playoff at the European Tour’s Commerical bank Qatar Masters, a sudden-death affair that went a not-so-sudden five extra holes.

Campillo, a 33-year-old from Spain, was trying to forget his frustrating finish at Education City Golf Club, in which he went bogey/double bogey/par over the final three holes to lose a two-stroke lead and close with a one-over 72.

Drysdale, a 44-year-old from Scotland, was trying to block out the fact that, in making his 498th start on tour, he was on the precipice of his first win, with his wife, Vicky, walking with him as his caddie.

In spite of the pressure both golfers were feeling, each turned in stellar play in their extra trips down the par-4 18th hole, making birdies the first two times and pars the next two (impressive considering only six birdies were made on the hole the entire final round).

On the fifth, and likely last go around on 18 before darkness would force a Monday finish, Campillo rolled in a 25-footer for birdie only to see Drysdale fail to match it, the Scotsman pushing his birdie effort left of the hole.

“You’ve got to be patient … you’ve got to try hard,” Campillo said. “It’s a tough win, but I’m glad I pulled it off.”

Campillo could empathize with Drysdale regarding waiting a long time to try to get your first win. The former first-team All-American at Indiana had gone 229 starts on the European Tour before winning the Trophée Hassan II last April.

The 54-hole leader in Qatar, Campillo looked like he had found his stride mid-round, making birdies on the 10th and 13th holes to get to 16 under par and push his lead to two strokes over Denmark’s Jeff Whither and three over Drysdale. When a bad drive right led to bogey on the par-4 16th, it seemed alright since Whither made bogey as well. An even worse drive right on the par-4 17th, however, forced Campillo to punch back to the fairway from the desert. His third shot missed the green, and when he failed to get up and down to save bogey, the double dropped him back to a tie t 13 under with Drysdale, who was finishing up an even-par 71. (Whither made bogey on 17 to fall to 12 under.)

Warren Little/Getty Images
Drysdale, with his wife Vicky on his bag, was searching for his first European Tour win in his 498th start.

Campillo had a chance to close it out in regulation on the 18th, a 25-foot birdie putt finishing one revolution shot of the hole. “I know I still was in the game and had to play it out,” he said.

The stellar back and forth in the playoff was impressive. Drysdale knocked it close for birdie putts inside 10 feet on the first two extra holes. Campillo, meanwhile, made putts from outside 20 feet both times to keep himself in the game.

“I’m just so proud right now of the way I played in the playoff,” he said. “I hardly missed a shot and I was able to make some putts.”

As for Drysdale, he hugged Vicky as he walked off a runner-up on the European Tour for a fourth time in his career. Yes, he wouldn’t have been in the playoff if not for Campillo’s mistakes down the stretch. But he had to be wondering how many more times he will get such a realistic chance to fulfill his life’s dream.

However, it would have to wait.

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