The 24-year-old Spaniard was hot with the putter at Real Club Valderrama, as he made eight birdies on a blemish-free card, to sit on nine-under alongside Dubai-based Spaniard Adrian Otaegui and Australia’s Min Woo Lee.

Otaegui added a five-under 66 to his opening 67 to make it a three-way tie at the top after Lee had gone 66-67.

The leading trio were three shots clear of Swede Joakim Lagergren, with Scot Robert MacIntyre and Spain’s Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez another shot back on five-under.

“I started the day hitting it so badly on the range, but I just tried to put the ball in the fairway on the first few holes and started to take some confidence,” said Hidalgo. “I made every putt today and that was the key.

“The support was amazing. It’s the first time I’ve played with so many people following me. I was a bit nervous at times, but it was great feeling. A 63 is a dream score and I’m so happy.”

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The post Hidalgo at the races as he joins Dubai’s Otaegui at the top in Valderrama appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
Never let it be said that the European Tour does not offer a little bit of everything to players and public. One week after all 75 of the competitors who completed 72 holes in the Spanish Open at Club de Campo in Madrid finished under par (38 of those 10 under or lower), only 14 men ended the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters at Valderrama in red figures.

Best of that elite group turned out to be the second highest-ranked player in the field, Matt Fitzpatrick. But it could and perhaps should have been the more unlikely figure of Sebastian Soderberg. The Swede, whose only previous European Tour victory came at 2019 European Masters, arrived on the Costa Del Sol ranked a lowly 169th on the Race to Dubai. In 22 starts this year, Soderberg had missed the cut 12 times and withdrawn once. His best finish was T-26 in the Kenya Savannah Classic. So victory would have meant a lot to the 31-year-old.

But it wasn’t to be in the cruellest of fashions. With two holes to play in regulation, Soderberg was six under par for the tournament and holding a two-shot advantage over Fitzpatrick, 28th in the World Ranking, and another Englishman, 54-hole leader Laurie Canter. Not for long though. As is the norm on the course that hosted the 1997 Ryder Cup, the closing holes proved eventful.

A badly pushed drive off the par-5 17th tee led to Soderberg losing his ball and, eventually, making a double-bogey 7. Seconds after that unfortunate sequence of events concluded, Fitzpatrick made his first birdie of the day—after 15 straight pars—on the par-4 16th to take a lead he would not relinquish. Another birdie at the penultimate hole and a closing par gave the now seven-time European Tour winner a closing 69. His six-under-par 278 total ended up three shots better than the two runners-up, Soderberg (who dropped another shot on the last) and Australia’s Min Woo Lee.

Canter, who finished in a seven-way tie for fourth on two-under par, will also harbour regrets. With 13 holes to play, the 31-year-old still searching for a first victory on the European Tour, was eight under, two shots better than the eventual winning score.

“Winning here at Valderrama, with the history it has, is on the bucket list,” said Fitzpatrick, 27, who earned €489,750 from what was his first start since the recent Ryder Cup. “And to do it bogey-free as well makes it extra special. I’m delighted, especially with the way I did it. I stayed patient all day. I didn’t try to press at all. I stuck to my targets and managed to hole the putts at the end. You can hit half-decent shots here, finish behind trees and have to chip out. It’s a true test. I’m really pleased with how my attitude was over the 72 holes.”

All of which was in almost complete contrast to the less-than chuffed Fitzpatrick who left Whistling Straits last month. Pointless for the second time in the Ryder Cup, the former U.S. Amateur champion was understandably down, despite having played some good golf in Europe’s losing cause. So to win so soon after such a disappointment will clearly be an important boost to his morale. Up to fifth on the Race to Dubai as the year-long contest moves towards its climax next month, he will surely arrive at the season-ending DP World Tour Championship—an event he has already won twice—with renewed confidence.

The post Matt Fitzpatrick puts Ryder Cup disappointment behind him with gritty Valderrama win appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
He’s done surreptitious, but now John Catlin can dine out in style. One month after an ill-advised visit to a restaurant outside the designated bubble led to his expulsion from the English Championship, the 29-year-old American is a European Tour champion. Catlin’s ponderously compiled birdie-free final-round 75 at Valderrama was good enough to claim the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters title by one shot from Martin Kaymer.

All smiles after his two-over-par 286 earned him the €196,690 first-place check for his wire-to-wire win, Catlin emotional state was in direct contrast to that of the runner-up. For Kaymer, whose chip from behind the 72nd green hung agonizingly on the lip of the cup, tournament golf is currently a frustrating business.

This was yet another in a string of disappointments since his most recent victory at the 2014 U.S. Open. Only a week ago, the former World No. 1 finished one-shot out of the playoff for the U.K. Championship at The Belfry, a sloppy bogey at the reachable par-5 17th in the final round all but putting paid to his chances.

The penultimate hole was again at least partly the root of Kaymer’s demise this time, too. Tied with Catlin, whose adrenaline-fueled approach finished over the green on Valderrama’s par-5 17th, the two-time major champion was six feet from the flag after his approach. The putt that would have seen Kaymer get to the final tee one stroke ahead was missed, as was, decisively as things played out, the 18th green. Catlin’s closing par, his long-range putt for birdie finishing inches away, was good enough to clinch victory for the Californian.

RELATED: Martin Kaymer painfully suffer a second straight heartbreaking Euro Tour loss

“This is still sinking in,” said the former University of New Mexico student, a four-time winner on the Asian Tour. “The nerves were going nuts the whole round. This is a very difficult course, the greens are firm and fast and the wind was no easier today than it had been for the first three rounds.

“My goal at the start of 2019 was to win on the European Tour, so to have accomplished that is hard to put into words,” Catlin added. “But I’m massively excited about now being able to play in all the big events on this tour.”

Inevitably, Catlin was asked to explain what he described as a “bad judgement call” at that restaurant prior to last month’s English Championship.

“I have no real excuse for what happened,” he said. “I should have known better. I had finished a practice round at about 8:45 p.m. And I was staying in a hotel at Stansted Airport, about 45 minutes from Hanbury Manor. I didn’t want to drive back and find that there was no food being served. So I stopped into a restaurant. But I used the whole thing as a wake-up call. To win only a month later is very special.”

Back at Valderrama, as evidenced by the winning score (highest on the European Tour since Sandy Lyle’s three-over par won the 1992 Volvo Masters at, where else, Valderrama) the other big story of the week was the difficulty of the course. How hard was it? The numbers, as ever, tell all. A sample: The eight-over-par cut mark was eventually good enough to finish as high as T-10. Lee Westwood’s closing 67— on the course where the 47-year-old made his Ryder Cup debut in 1997—was low round of the week. Just 12 men managed to break 70; and only one, Sami Valimaki, achieved that feat twice.

The post John Catlin puts his recent European Tour blunder behind him with victory at Valderrama appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
For the second straight week Martin Kaymer contended in a European Tour event only to stumble at the finish.

Friends and well-wishers will insist that with each successive time Martin Kaymer squanders an opportunity to break his six-year victory drought dating back to his U.S. Open triumph at Pinehurst 156 starts ago, when the 35-year-old finally does win, it will make the moment that much sweeter. Here’s hoping that’s surely the case because of all the disappointment that has come in those missed chances.

The latest happened Sunday at Valderrama during the final round of the European Tour’s Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucia Masters. Kaymer, ranked 123rd in the world starting the week, was tied for the lead at two-over par with John Catlin as the pair played the par-5 17th hole. Kaymer appeared to have the clear advantage when his approach shot settled six feet from the hole while his opponent, in what looked like a fit of adrenaline, hit his approach over the green. Catlin, however, chipped up to five feet with his fourth shot, hoping to save par so that Kaymer would walk to the 18th tee with no more than a one-shot advantage should the German make the very makeable birdie try.

Except Kaymer pulled his putt, the ball lipping out. So when Catlin holed his par, the pair remained tied going to the 18th hole.

Kaymer, to take a one shot lead to the 72nd hole…#ValderramaMasters pic.twitter.com/6NH1tU3w7J

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) September 6, 2020

Seemingly, the pressure would still be on Catlin, a 29-year-old American looking for his first European Tour victory and trying to erase the memory of being DQ’d in August from an event for eating at a restaurant outside the tour’s designated bubble. But he managed to find the fairway with his drive on the par-4 home hole. Kaymer, however, found the first cut of rough, which set up an approach shot that landed in a greenside bunker short left of the green. Kaymer then hit the long sand shot poorly, the ball trickling just off the green while Catlin was safely on with his approach, albeit 50-plus feet from the hole.

Catlin lagged his birdie to within a foot, meaning Kaymer had to chip his ball in for par to force a playoff. And darned if Kaymer didn’t nearly do it.

John Catlin wins the #ValderramaMasters! ? pic.twitter.com/WNVnOsjZBP

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) September 6, 2020

Truth be told, you almost wish he didn’t actually hit the shot so well, making it a little less painful that it was dangling there on the lip. Particular when you see it from this slow-motion view.

This close to a play-off…#ValderramaMasters pic.twitter.com/qzKDQeC2oc

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) September 6, 2020

This all comes a week after Kaymer similarly made a late bogey to finish one-shot out of a playoff at the U.K. Championship at The Belfry.

RELATED: John Catlin puts recent Euro Tour blunder behind him with win at Valderrama

Give credit to Kaymer for putting himself in good situations of late. But let’s hope he finally closes one out here soon, if not for his sake then for ours.

The post Watching Martin Kaymer suffer his second straight heartbreaking European Tour finish is pretty painful appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.