Dylan Mostert’s fine recent form continued on day one of the 2023 Magical Kenya Open, as he fired an opening 64 to share the lead with John Catlin.

South African Mostert won his maiden European Challenge Tour title at the Nelson Mandela Bay Championship on home soil two weeks ago, and he impressed once again on Thursday as he kicked off a run of three successive DP World Tour starts, setting the early target courtesy of a brilliant birdie blitz.

Starting from the 10th tee, Mostert picked up five shots on the front nine before making three more gains after the turn.

The 24-year-old’s only blemish came at the ninth — his last hole of the day — as he missed his tricky par putt there to head into the clubhouse on seven under par.

He was soon joined at that mark by fellow morning starter Catlin, with the American carding an eagle and five birdies in his flawless first-round effort.

Wil Besseling and Pierre Pineau sat in a tie for third on six-under, with Gavin Green, Borja Virto, Tom Murray, Nick Bachem and Casey Jarvis another shot back in joint-fifth.

Mostert said: “I’m very pleased. I played very solid today, kept the momentum going throughout the round.

How it stands after 18 holes ?#MagicalKenyaOpen

— DP World Tour (@DPWorldTour) March 9, 2023

“Made some good putts, hit a lot of greens.

“The greens are small, so if you’re hitting greens you’re going to have a lot of chances. I managed to make a few putts, I’ll just keep doing the same thing. I’m excited for tomorrow.

“The greens are quite soft in the morning, they definitely firm up throughout the day. As soon as the wind picks up and the heat gets up they firm up and get faster, much tougher. It’s definitely an advantage to play early in the morning.

“I’m just grateful to be here, I got an invite. It fits nicely in my schedule and I’ll have three DP World Tour events in a row now, going to South Africa.”

Catlin added: “I feel like I left some out there on my back nine. I got off to a really hot start and just made some bad swings, I didn’t take advantage of the par fives and hit a really bad lay-up on the seventh.

“It was a good round of golf, I left a few out there for sure.

“A nice way to build some momentum. I feel like I’ve been close, just a poor swing here, misjudgement here, that’s all it takes out here.

Uganda’s Ronald Rugumayo had a day to remember as he made a hole-in-one at the par-three second.

The post DP World Tour: Mostert and Catlin tied at the top in Kenya appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
With 36 holes to play in the final European Tour season before the circuit is rebranded to the DP World Tour, Collin Morikawa is comfortably on track for a place in history that will forever traverse whatever name, shape or form the tour takes.

While former Open champion Shane Lowry enjoys a three-way share of the halfway lead at the DP World Tour Championship, it is the reigning Open champion that leads the big dance.

With a second successive 68 on Earth at Jumeirah Golf Estates, Morikawa strengthened his bid to become the first American winner of the Race to Dubai title.

The 24-year-old Californian will begin Saturday’s third round in a share of 6th place with fellow major champion Martin Kaymer and importantly only two strokes off the -10 halfway lead held by Irishman Lowry, Englishman Sam Horsfield and American John Catlin.

Only five players can deny Morikawa the European No.1 tag with Englishman Paul Casey and Matt Fitzpatrick the best placed at -5. Critically, Morikawa’s countryman Billy Horschel, the only other player who can win the Race to Dubai without winning the DPWTC, is a whopping 10-shots off the pace in a share of 43rd in the 53 player field.

“I’m aware,” Morikawa said of his commanding position entering the final weekend of the season. “But I’ve got to focus on the weekend. I want to win this tournament. That’s all I care about, winning this tournament …everything else will kind of settle itself.

“That’s my focus. We’ve played a decent two days and we’ve got two more rounds to go.”

Lowry fired a seven-under 65 to earn his share of the leaderboard summit after overnight leader Rory McIlroy slipped a shot back after a double-bogey finish.

Warren Little/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy undid a lot of good work with a double bogey seven on Earth’s closing hole in Friday’s second round.

McIlroy seemed destined to back up his opening 65 with another round in the 60s but found sand and water on Earth’s closing par-5 en-route to a 70 to finish on -8 alongside Sweden’s Alexander Björk.

“I’m playing nicely. I started well again today and hit a lot of good shots on the front nine. It was sort of a little scrappy around the middle but was able to hang in there with my short game,” said McIlroy.

“Hit a nice one on 16, so the good stuff is in there. It’s just a matter of, yeah, I mean, I still feel like I played well and I feel like 70 is sort of the worst I could have shot today, especially with the finish and hopefully that’s the bad one out of the way.”

Shane Lowry acknowledges the galleries after his second round 65. (Photo Getty Images).

Lowry, who finished joint second behind Jon Rahm in the 2017 DP World Tour Championship, is in pursuit of his first title since hoisting the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush in 2019. His Friday 65 included five birdies and a chip-in eagle on the 14th.

“I feel like my game is in good shape and I feel like I know my way around this place and I know how to play here,” said Lowry.

“I’m happy to be atop of the leaderboard, late tee time tomorrow and I’m looking forward to the weekend.

“Just keep doing what I’m doing. For me personally, it’s two more days left and then end of a long year and a half, I suppose, long couple years. I’m looking forward to giving everything and leaving it on the course this weekend and hopefully I’m there near the top of the leaderboard come Sunday afternoon.”

The post Collin is comfortable as Shane soars and Rory slips heading into the weekend on Earth appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Joel Beall
Former champion David Duval is the latest player to drop out of the Open Championship.

The R&A announced Sunday that Duval, 49, is no longer in this week’s field at Royal St. George’s. No reason was given for his decision; Duval had told Golf Digest he planned on teeing it up this week and had made the trip to the United Kingdom.

A former World No. 1, Duval captured the claret jug in 2001 at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club thanks to a final-round 67. The win was viewed as a breakthrough for Duval; however, it would prove to be his last professional victory.

Duval joined Hideki Matsuyama, Bubba Watson, Matthew Wolff and Kevin Na as high-profile names to drop out of the tournament in recent days. Matsuyama continues to register positive COVID-19 tests while Watson cited close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus. Na is passing on the event due to travel restrictions; no reason was given for Wolff’s decision, making it his second missed major this year.

Duval is replaced by John Catlin, an American who plays on the European Tour. Catlin will be making his Open Championship debut.

The post Former Open champ joins growing number of WDs from Royal St. George’s appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
There was bit of a “Groundhog Day” feel to the playoff on Sunday at the European Tour’s Austrian Golf Open between John Catlin and Maximilian Kieffer. The two finished their final rounds on the par-3 18th hole at Diamond Country Club outside Vienna tied at 14 under for the tournament. So it was on to a sudden-death playoff, which would be played exclusively on that same 18th hole until somebody emerged the winner.

As it turned out there was nothing “sudden” about the playoff, however, the duo putting up matching pars the first two times around, then each making a birdie on the third playing under chilly overcast skies (both players bundled for what appeared like winter weather rather than spring). After each made another par the fourth time around—Catlin with an impressive up and down from a bunker—they trudged back to the tee box on the 180-yard hole, a scant few onlookers patiently waiting to see if somebody would finally seize the moment.

Once more, Catlin, a 30-year-old American who had won twice in a three-week stretch last summer on the European Tour, found the right greenside bunker, seemingly giving his opponent an opening. But Kieffer, a 30-year-old German looking for his first Euro Tour title, proceeded to hit his tee shot fat, the ball finding the water.

It wasn’t necessarily a mortal wound for Kieffer, who shot a closing 66 to get into the playoff, as he could get up-and-down from the drop zone for bogey, and maybe Catlin doesn’t save his par. But Kieffer then hit his third shot into the water as well. Then his fifth hit the green but spun 15 feet back and into the water once more.

The outcome now, in a quick moment of distress, pretty clear. Except Catlin had to finish the hole to officially claim victory. (Kieffer could not concede the win given they’re in a stroke-play setting). Which meant Kieffer had to play his seventh, finally hitting the green.

Catlin then got to proceed with his bunker shot, getting it on the green to roughly 10 feet. Kieffer managed to hole his 17-foot putt for a quintuple-bogey 8, and Catlin then missed his par putt, which of course didn’t really matter.

“It’s always nice to win,” Catlin said afterward. “It’s tough to watch that happen … we’re out here giving it our all.”

Every shot from the #AustrianGolfOpen play-off ?️ pic.twitter.com/JXBE4F5jiV

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) April 18, 2021

Kieffer, who is familiar with long playoffs having have lost on the ninth playoff hole to Raphael Jacquelin at the 2013 Open de España, was disappointed by stoic. “Every shot on the playoff felt good, too, but the last shot [first tee shot on the fifth extra hole] was a bit stupid. I got a bit too aggressive.”

Suffice it to say, we don’t think we’re going to see a playoff scorecard like this again any time soon.

The post European Tour five-hole playoff produces one of the most bizarre finishes you can imagine appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
In the wake of a four-month COVID-19 lockdown and the subsequent resumption of the 2020 season, the reshaped European Tour—diminished financially and thinner on top in terms of field strength—actually came to represent lands of opportunity for some. Many top-ranked players from Europe chose instead to ride things out in the United States and play on the PGA Tour, providing less familiar names with multiple chances to flourish on the Old World circuit.

“The last few months have been a time for a lot of guys to break through, or re-establish themselves,” says former Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn. “The outside pressures have largely been removed. With no crowds present, everyone is just playing golf. And no one has been paying much attention to those who have played poorly. So things have become a lot freer. It’s been easier to play without some of the mental obstacles that normally lead to discomfort, especially during final rounds. But that sort of environment has been non-existent on tour this year.”

RELATED: European and PGA Tours announce formation of a strategic alliance

And many have taken advantage. Following a return to action at the Austrian Open in July, 10 players have recorded maiden victories: Joel Stalter, Sam Horsfield, Romain Langasque, Rasmus Hojgaard, John Catlin, Garrick Higgo, Callum Shinkwin, Robert MacIntyre, JB Hansen and Antoine Rozner. Meanwhile, three actually went on to repeat that feat.

Redemption, although not quite so prevalent, also found its place. Three men—Andy Sullivan, Marc Warren and Ross McGowan—have all returned to the winner’s circle after long absences.

So, who most notably emerged to seize the moment? Here’s a brief look at the most promising golfers among the lot.

Andrew Redington

Rasmus Hojgaard
World Ranking March 15: 184
World Ranking Dec. 7: 82

Bjorn is not surprisingly a big believer in his fellow Dane. “Rasmus has all the tools,” Bjorn says. “There is no weakness in his game, and he has a great attitude. He works hard and believes in himself. He asks the right questions. Things still have to break your way and things have to happen the right way for anyone to get right to the top. But nothing is holding him back. He has a remarkable talent, as him winning two of his first 19 events clearly shows.”

The first of Hojgaard’s wins came in December last year, at the relatively low-key Mauritius Open. But his second win at The Belfry in the U.K. Championship was more impressive, coming as it did at the at the end of a four-week run in which the 19-year-old finished second at the British Masters, T-6 at the Hero Open, and third at the English Championship.

REWIND: Golf Digest Middle East’s 2014 conversation with the ‘voice of golf’

• • •

Warren Little

Robert MacIntyre
World Ranking March 15: 67
World Ranking Dec. 7: 59

“Rookie of the year” on the European Tour in 2019 after a string of fine performances that included a T-6 finish in his Open Championship debut at Portrush, Macintyre’s breakthrough at the Cyprus Showdown is perhaps the least surprising in this group of emerging talents.

“I’ve watched Bob a lot over the past couple of years,” says fellow Scot and 1999 Open champion Paul Lawrie. “His rise has been quick and steady. He seems like a lovely lad. I can see him winning more. He clearly has a good attitude, temperament and way about him. And he has the game. How high he goes remains to be seen. But judging by the World Rankings (MacIntyre is the highest-ranked Caledonian at 61st), he looks like Scotland’s best chance to have a Ryder Cup player next year.”

• • •

RK

Antoine Rozner
World Ranking March 15: 202
World Ranking Dec. 7: 123

The climax to what had been an unobtrusively impressive season came late, with a victory in the first Golf in Dubai Championship. Twice a winner and eighth on the 2019 Challenge Tour money list, Rozner had accumulated as many as five top-10 finishes—including a playoff loss at the Mauritius Open—in 19 starts before his breakthrough victory. Only twice had he missed the cut. And the final-round 64 with which he clinched that win was the 27-year old Frenchman’s 19th round in succession at par or better.

Those numbers are impressive enough. But there’s more. In his rookie season on the European Tour, Rozner ranks inside the top 15 in both driving distance and greens in regulation. And only two men—Ryder Cup players Andy Sullivan and Tommy Fleetwood—have a stroke average lower than his 69.72. Given his present rate of progress, Rozner could become only the fourth Frenchman to take his place in the biennial contest with the United States.

• • •

Richard Heathcote

Sam Horsfield
World Ranking March 15: 222
World Ranking Dec. 7: 99

The 24-year old Florida-based Englishman (his family moved stateside when Horsfield was just a child) might not be the most consistent player on the European Tour, but when he gets a sniff of victory he tends to take it. Twice in two weeks back in August he did just that, first at the Hero Open, then at the Celtic Classic. None of which will have come as a surprise to Ian Poulter or Terry Mundy. The six-time Ryder Cup player is a long-time mentor of his younger compatriot and Mundy—Poulter’s caddie—is Horsfield’s co-manager.

“He’s the best young player I’ve ever played with,” said Poulter when a 14-year old Horsfield first beat him over nine holes. A decade or so later, it’s safe to say that assessment is proving more than prescient.

• • •

Warren Little

John Catlin
World Ranking March 15: 211
World Ranking Dec. 7: 96

Most weeks, there aren’t many Americans on the European Tour. But Catlin has long proved that a lack of familiar accents is no barrier to success around the globe. Four times the 29-year-old former University of New Mexico student won on the Asian Tour. And now he has half as many wins in Europe to add to his burgeoning resume.

“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,” was Caitlin’s verdict after seeing off two-time major champion Martin Kaymer to win the Andalucian Masters at what is surely the most difficult course on the circuit, Valderrama.

And only three weeks later, Catlin was back, this time at the Irish Open, where he came from behind to pip soon-to-be Scottish Open champion Aaron Rai to lift one of golf’s most historic titles.

• • •

Ross Kinnaird

Callum Shinkwin
World Ranking March 15: 351
World Ranking Dec. 7: 149

In truth, Shinkwin should not be part of this list. Needing only a par 5 on the 18th hole at the Dundonald Links to win the 2017 Scottish Open, Shinkwin missed the green left with his second shot, found an unfortunate lie, then took four more shots to hole out for a bogey 6. Perhaps inevitably, he lost the playoff to Rafa Cabrera-Bello at the first extra hole.

So victory more than three years on at the Cyprus Open in November was a triumph over adversity as much as anything else. Especially as, mired in a slump, the former English Amateur champion had lost his European Tour card at the end of the 2018 season.

“That was the final kick up the backside I needed,” he said in the wake of his playoff victory over Finland’s Kalle Samooja. “And you can say I got what I deserved back in 2017. But it makes this all the sweeter.”

The post These are the rising stars you should be watching on the European Tour in 2021 appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Feinstein
On Sunday afternoon, while most Americans were watching football, an American golfer was pulling off a stunning feat. The golfer, though, wasn’t Bryson DeChambeau or Phil Mickelson or Tiger Woods.

It was John Catlin, someone who even golf geeks know almost nothing about. Playing in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, Catlin birdied three of his final four holes to shoot a final-round 64. A spectacular 3-wood on the par-5 18th from 268 yards set up the final two-putt birdie that allowed him to beat Englishman Aaron Rai by two shots.

Catlin, who turns 30 in November, has now won twice this month on the European Tour. On Labor Day weekend he won at Valderrama in Spain, arguably the most famous course on the European continent, and Sunday he won a tournament whose previous champions include names like Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Sergio Garcia, Ian Woosnam, Colin Montgomerie and—more recently—Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm.

Catlin became just the third American (and the first in 43 years) to win the title. Ben Crenshaw won it in 1976 and Hubert Green won it a year later, the same year he won the U.S. Open and finished third in the Open Championship.

Because Catlin’s win came on a late September Sunday, a lot more people were focused on how their local NFL team was doing or even on the last day of the Major League Baseball truncated regular season. Heck, even U.S. golf fans were more aware of Hudson Swafford’s one-stroke win at the Corales Puntacana Resort and Club Championship than Catlin’s victory.

Golf is a sport that is off the radar of many, if not most, general sports fans except when the game’s biggest events, most notably the four majors and the Ryder Cup, are taking place. The shame of this is that wonderful stories often go unnoticed or are glossed over, even by those of us who cover golf. No one is more guilty of pushing the importance of the major championships than I am. I’ve often said that winning one major is worth winning 10 regular tour events—at least. And the only players I know who disagree with that assessment are those who have won regular tour events but have never won a major.

That does not mean, however, that great stories don’t occur at non-majors. In fact, some of the most poignant stories happen on weeks when only we geeks are paying attention.

There was no better example of that than two Sundays ago when Stewart Cink won the Safeway Open. In 2009, at the age of 36, Cink won the Open Championship—the culmination of a career that had included five tour victories and four Ryder Cup appearances. Instead of becoming known to most of the public as a major champion, Cink became the guy who had beaten Tom Watson—denying him the chance to win a sixth claret jug at age 59.

Sean M. Haffey
Stewart Cink celebrates with the trophy and his son Reagan after winning the Safeway Open.

Cink handled it all with grace and humility, saying if he’d been watching the four-hole playoff from home, he would have been pulling for Watson. Until two weeks ago, he hadn’t won in more than 11 years since that day at Turnberry, a period of time in which he had endured the torture of watching his wife, Lisa, be diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer in March 2016.

Lisa Cink is cancer-free now and her husband shot 65-65 on the weekend in the Napa Valley to hold a trophy for the first time since his win over Watson. Son Reagan was on the bag for Cink, and the family’s quiet victory celebration was about as poignant as you are likely to see anywhere in sports in this strange pandemic-dominated year.

But because the NFL season started that weekend and because the rescheduled U.S. Open was up next on the golf schedule, Cink’s victory was little noted beyond the golf websites. It wasn’t on network TV and there’s no doubt a lot more people were watching Tom Brady’s debut as a Tampa Bay Buccaneer than Cink’s two-shot win over Harry Higgs.

The thing is, Cink’s story might not have been nearly as glamorous, but it was one far more people should have been able to relate to than the golden boy making his debut in another uniform. Truth be told, Cink played a lot better than Brady that day.

Because golf is built around the four majors and the Ryder Cup, a lot of non-major stories are missed—certainly by the mainstream media.

Earlier this summer, Daniel Summerhays announced before the start of the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Classic that he was going to retire at week’s end to coach golf at the high school he graduated from 28 years earlier. Summerhays never won on the PGA Tour, but he twice finished in the top 10 in majors (T-8 at the 2017 U.S. Open after getting in as fourth alternate and third at that year’s PGA). He won once on what was then the Nationwide Tour—as an amateur—and had a solid, though decidedly un-glamorous, career.

Matthew Stockman
Daniel Summerhays nearly won the Utah Championship in his home after announcing he was retiring to become a high school golf coach.

He decided to retire at a tournament near home, even though there wouldn’t be spectators at the event. Then, he almost wrote the script for a Disney movie, shooting 62 the last day to get into a playoff with Kyle Jones and Paul Haley II. Someone botched the ending, though, when Jones won the playoff. Even so, one could almost picture the freeze-frame-ending on that final green as Summerhays walked into the sunset.

Every year there are terrific stories that never make it out of golf’s insular world. Early in 2019, 31-year-old Adam Long arrived at what was then the Desert Classic with four PGA Tour starts to his credit—one cut made in those four starts. He somehow played his way into Sunday’s last group along with Adam Hadwin and Phil Mickelson, the tournament’s “host” and a darling of golf crowds everywhere, no more so than in the Coachella Valley.

With 80 percent of the crowd cheering lustily for Mickelson and the rest for Hadwin (fellow Canadians snow-birding in the desert), Long hung in all day. Finally, on the 18th hole, he drilled a 20-foot birdie putt to win, stunning Mickelson, Hadwin and almost every fan in attendance.

Keyur Khamar
Adam Long pumps his fist and celebrates his one stroke victory after making a winning birdie putt on the 18th hole green during the final round of the 2019 Desert Classic.

The win was life-changing for Long, who just missed the Tour Championship this year—finishing 31st on the points list—and had a two-shot lead Sunday at Puntacana, before a final-round 75 dropped him to fifth place.

There’s also the too-tough-to-believe-even-for-Disney story of Nate Lashley, who had very little status going into last year’s inaugural Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit. Lashley tried to Monday qualify for the tournament and just missed, finishing as the third alternate. He got into the field on Wednesday and then, at the age of 36, WON going from limited tour status to an exemption through the end of the 2020-’21 season. That’s not to mention the slightly more than $1.3 million he won to go with the silly-looking trophy someone handed him.

Catlin is just the latest example of a story worthy of our attention that will be largely overlooked. He was a three-time academic All-American at New Mexico and has taken the arduous journey in the direction of the PGA Tour that those who come out of college without star credentials often have to take.

Since turning pro in 2013, he has played on the PGA Tour Canada and then on the Asian Developmental Tour for two years. His breakthrough came in 2018 when he won three times on the Asian Tour to gain status to the European Tour. His post-COVID return to golf didn’t start very well this summer when he and his caddie, Nathan Mulrooney, went to a restaurant outside the tour’s bubble just prior to the start of the UK Swing in August.

Catlin, who had only limited status on the European Tour, was banned from the tournament, apologized and then came back to win at Valderrama a month later. His victory in Ireland moved him to 14th place in the Road to Dubai standings and 84th in the Official World Golf Rankings.

If Catlin can stay hot and reach the top 50, he will suddenly be eligible for the majors and for World Golf Championship events. Someone named Brooks Koepka followed a similar path six years ago. If Catlin can continue in those footsteps, he might get noticed someday. Maybe.

The post There are stirring golf triumphs to celebrate, even when they fly under the radar appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By John Huggan
Three weeks ago, en route to his maiden European Tour victory in the Andalucia Masters, John Catlin led wire-to-wire at Valderrama. Second time round though, things were a bit different for the 29-year-old American. With just five holes to play in the final round of the Irish Open at the Galgorm Spa & Golf Resort, finishing first appeared unlikely. Having just made what would prove to be his only bogey of the final round, Catlin stood on the 14th tee seven under par, trailing Jazz Janewattananond by two shots and overnight leader Aaron Rai by one.

Not for long though.

Three holes later, Rai was still eight under par, Janewattananond had subsided to six under (courtesy of a double bogey at the short 14th and another dropped shot at the 16th) and Catlin had soared to nine under and a one-stroke advantage. Indeed, birdies at the 15th and 16th were only the start. With a 3-wood from 268 yards on the final hole, Catlin found the distant green and two-putted to put one last red figure on his scorecard and complete a final-round 64. Only Fabrizio Zanotti’s closing 63 was lower in a week marred by fog and frost delays.

Ten under par was the target, with Rai the only realistic challenger. The 25-year-old Englishman, who wears a glove on each hand for every full shot, needed birdies at each of the last two holes to force a playoff.

The 2018 Hong Kong Open winner got halfway to his target when a beautiful approach shot to the 457-yard 17th set up the needed birdie. But after a drive rifled up the middle on the 18th, Rai pulled his second shot into an evil lie in heavy rough left of the green. Two hacks and two putts later, he was no better than eight under par, although, by way of consolation, still alone in second place. Janewattananond tied for third alongside Australia’s Maverick Antcliff.

“It’s hard to describe how special this feels,” said Catlin, the first American winner of this historic title, first played for in 1927, since Hubert Green in 1977 and the third overall (Ben Crenshaw was the other in 1976). “That’s incredible company to be in. It’s an honour to have my name on the trophy with those great players and the likes of Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Colin Montgomerie, Ian Woosnam. Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo. So much hard work during lockdown has gone into this moment. It was my goal to win again at the start of the week, so to achieve that is truly special. With five holes to play, I kinda had nothing to lose. I was going after every flag and was able to hit a couple in there close.”

The 3-wood on the 18th was the best of them though, a shot that clinched the €196,690 first prize, a place in the top-20 on the Race to Dubai and, most likely, a first-time spot inside the world’s top-100 golfers. He is thus one big performance away from the top-50 and automatic places in the four majors, a long-held ambition and, for Catlin, “the only level of golf I haven’t played at.”

“That shot was so satisfying,” continued Catlin, a three-time academic All-American during his time at the University of New Mexico. “It was 268 yards to the hole. It was cold and it was damp out there. I needed to hit a big high draw, a shot I know I can hit. But to do it in those conditions and in that situation is hard to put into words. Winning at Valderrama has given me massive confidence. You never know if you are going to win, but winning there has freed me up. I can look myself in the mirror and tell myself honestly that, having won once, I can do it again.”

And so he has.

The post John Catlin becomes just the third American to win the Irish Open 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.

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By Joel Beall
The European Tour disqualified a player and his caddie from this week’s English Championship after the duo broke COVID-19 protocols.

Specifically, eating at a restaurant.

As part of Euro Tour guidelines during its restart, all players and caddies must stay within the circuit’s bubble, which is the course and a designated hotel. American John Catlin and his caddie were caught eating dinner in a town near this week’s venue in Ware, Hertfordshire on Tuesday, in breach of the tour’s regulations and thus triggering their removal.

The European Tour confirmed Catlin’s “forced WD” on Wednesday.

“I apologize to my fellow players and everyone involved with the tournament this week for this error of judgment,” said Catlin, ranked No. 242 in the world. “I understand the European Tour’s decision and accept the sanction.”

A former college golf at the University of New Mexico, Catlin has played mostly on the Asian and European circuits in his career, although he did make six starts on the PGA Tour in 2019. Catlin was coming off a T-51 finish at the Hero Open. Wilco Nienaber will replace Catlin in the field.

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