GOLF:AS ONE Peter (Lawrie) knocked on the door of a second European Tour win, another Peter (Hanson) threw the cat among the pigeons by winning the Czech Open from a play-off to move into an automatic Ryder Cup spot ahead of this week's Johnnie Walker Championship, the concluding event before Colin Montgomerie finalises his European team.
The upshot of Hanson’s fourth European tour win is that there will be big-name casualties, that much is certain. Star names such as Pádraig Harrington, Luke Donald, Paul Casey and Justin Rose cannot all make it to Celtic Manor. What’s more they have chosen not to play in the final counting event at Gleneagles and will instead tee it up in The Barclays, the first tournament of the lucrative FedEx Cup series.
Factor in Edoardo Molinari, veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez, Simon Dyson, Alvaro Quiros or Ross McGowan, who are all on the fringes of making the team, and it leaves Montgomerie with plenty to ponder before making his three wild-card picks come Sunday evening.
The Czech Open may not be the most glamorous stop on the European Tour but given its place on the schedule at the end of a Ryder Cup race it was a significant tournament.
Lawrie saved his best for last at the Celadna venue when a final round 66 set the clubhouse target on 10 under 278. The Dubliner’s equal low round of the day hit top gear in the middle stages when he reeled off a birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie combination from the eighth before parring home.
He was later joined by overnight leader Hanson and English rookie, Gary Boyd, before the trio did battle in the sudden-death play-off. All four parred the 18th first time around with Lawrie’s birdie chip hitting the cup but stayed above ground. At the second time of asking the Swede holed an 18-foot birdie putt to secure the title and the €333,330 winner’s cheque.
The 32-year-old only received an invite to the penultimate event in the Ryder Cup race last Monday but took full advantage to make it three play-off wins from three.
Lawrie had to settle for the €173,710 joint runner-up prize rather than add to his maiden win at the Spanish Open in 2008. A fifth top-10 finish earned the 36-year-old easily the biggest cheque of the season so far and moved him up to 42nd in the Race to Dubai standings (€460,505).
Before the play-off Hanson looked far from assured as he squandered a four-shot overnight lead and limped over the line with a closing 74.
“This easily means the most of my wins. I know I won my home event a couple of years ago, but to come here knowing I pretty much have to win to have a chance of making the (Ryder Cup) team and pull it off was fantastic,” said Hanson, who jumped from 15th to eighth and bumped Casey out of the ninth and last automatic qualifying spot.
“I am going to refocus, recharge my batteries and be ready to go again. There’s another week to go but it looks much better now,” added Hanson, who will take nothing for granted at Gleneagles but now knows a top-40 finish in Scotland will clinch a Ryder Cup debut regardless of what anybody else does.
Jimenez has decided to play at Gleneagles after a closing 73 over the Prosper course he designed meant the Spaniard dropped from tied second to tied seventh. The 46-year-old holds the final spot on the European list and hadn’t originally planned to play in Scotland, preferring to attend his nephew’s wedding on Saturday. However, he will travel to Perthshire in the hope of holding onto his place and earn a fourth Ryder Cup call up.
Edoardo Molinari will aim to join his brother Francesco at Celtic Manor with the siblings already proven playing partners having won the World Cup for Italy last November.
There are six Irishmen competing in the €1.7 million Johnnie Walker Championship this week; Ryder Cup vice-captain Paul McGinley, Lawrie, Shane Lowry, Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy and Simon Thornton.
Murphy and Thornton are in a battle to keep hold of their cards. Murphy is a lowly 251st in the standings with €15,445 from 21 events and weekend rounds of 85, 77 in the Czech Republic will hardly inspire confidence. Thornton is closer to the magical top 115 at 145th with €89,801 from 15 events but needs to press on and take advantage of gaining tournament entry for the next four weeks.
McGrane, meanwhile, has his own agenda of staying inside the top 60 to secure a place at the season-ending Dubai World Championship. The Meath man is 52nd (€395,484).
In the US Rory McIlroy and Harrington return to action after a week’s break following the US PGA Championship at Whistling Straits. The pair, who remain unchanged at seventh and 18th respectively in the world rankings, tee it up in the Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey. US Open champion Graeme McDowell has another week off after he travelled to Michigan and New York on business after the final major of the year.
McIlroy and Harrington start the FedEx Cup series in 21st and 53rd place before this week’s 125-man field is whittled down to the top 100 for next week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston.
