Scrivener 7th as Rahm Successfully defends in Spain

John Rahm – Getty Images

Jason Scrivener has finished as the leading Australian at the Open de Espana in Madrid, recording his best European Tour finish in eight months with a 7th place finish at the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid.

Scrivener finished ten shots from the winner, Jon Rahm, who successfully defended his 2018 title when winning by five shots over fellow countryman Rafa Cabrera Bello.

Scrivener will now move to 57th in the Race to Dubai Rankings but in order for him to make the field for the season ending DP Dubai World Championship in November he needs to be inside the top 50 so has further work to do over the next six weeks or so.

30-year old Scrivener, born in South Africa but raised in Perth in Western Australia, won €34,000 (A$55,000) although after beginning his round with consecutive birdie at the first and second holes there was a period where it might have been an even better week.

Dimi Papdatos was the next best of the Australians when he finished 23rd, Brett Rumford was 30th, Jake McLeod 49th and Deyen Lawson 55th.

Rahm will improve to perhaps as high as 4th in the world ranking subject to the final standings at the PGA Tour event in Las Vegas to be completed later in the day.

Rahm took a five-shot lead into the final day and although frustrated early in his round things began to move forward when he eagled the 4th hole to establish an unassailable lead.

It was Rahm’s second win of the 2019 season to go with his victory at the Irish Open and runner-up finishes at the BMW PGA Championship and Andalucia Masters and sweeps him to the top of the Race to Dubai rankings.

Scores

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Whitney Hillier Records Best Finish in Two Years

Hillier in action today – Ladies European Tour

West Australian Whitney Hillier today recorded her best result in nearly two years when she finished 4th at the Ladies European Tour’s Hero Women’s Indian Open.

The 28-year old from the Joondalup Golf Club in Perth was unable to capitalise fully on her fast start to the week, when leading through 36 holes, but the €20,000 she collected for her impressive week will move her to 19th place on the Ladies European Tour money list.

Hillier has yet to win in professional golf but she has been twice 3rd on the Ladies European Tour and now 4th and following a 7th place finish last week her form appears to be finding consistency.

Hillier finished five shots behind the winner Christine Wolf of Austria who was in turn three shots ahead of Marianne Skarpnord.

Queenslander Becky Kay, one of Australia’s best amateurs before turning professional recently  finished 37th on her debut as a professional.

Kay is schedule to attend the Second Stage of LPGA Tour qualifying in Florida in a week’s time.

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Australians Well Placed in Las Vegas

Matt Jones – file

Australian golfers are well placed at the halfway mark of the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas, Sydney’s Matt Jones one behind the four-way tie for the lead and Adam Scott and Cameron Smith another two shots back and tied for 9th in the congested leaderboard.

Jones, who was forced to withdraw from the recent Sanderson Farms Championship with a back injury, produced a 9 under par round of 63, capped off by almost holing his approach at his final hole to set up a possible second PGA Tour victory.

Another Australian to have featured this week is the University of Nevada golfer Jack Trent from the Sunshine Coast who earned a start in the event as a result of winning a recent collegiate event and did himself proud by recovering from a slow start to his second round with a final nine of 33 to make the cut by two shots.

Trent has lived in the US for the last five years and of late has attended the University of Nevada at which fellow Queenslander, Adam Scott, also played during his amateur career. Trent and Scott played a practice round earlier in the week.

Aaron Baddeley was tied with Trent in 50th place and he too will play the final 36 holes.

Scott’s good play continued with a strong closing nine of 31 for a round of 67 and he finds himself just three from the lead.

Smith recovered from an early bogey for his round of 64 which included a final nine of 30 to join Scott just three forom the lead.

Previous winner and runner-up in the event, Patrick Cantlay, shares the lead with Brian Stuard, Lucas Glover and Kevin Na on the low scoring layout where 5 under par was required to make the final 36 holes.

 

 

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Spaniards Dominate in Spain but Scrivener Stays in Touch

Rafa Cabrera Bello – Getty Images

Jason Scrivener has improved his standing at the Open de Espana in Madrid, adding a second round 68 to his opening 67 and as the event heads into the weekend he finds himself in a share of 6th place and four from the lead held by Spain’s Adri Arnaus and Rafa Cabrera Bello.

Scrivener recovered from an indifferent start with a final nine of 30 to keep within touch of the lead as he looks to reverse some rather ordinary form of late, having missed two of his last three cuts and finished 61st last week in Scotland.

Queensland’s European Tour rookie Jake McLeod is tied for 20th after his second round of 70 and given his standing outside the top 150 in the Race to Dubai rankings he will need to finish the season strongly if he is to regain the right to play the European Tour next season.

Victorian Deyen Lawson is tied for 26th, with Brett Rumford and Dimi Papadatos 44th.

The leaders head a Spanish dominated leaderboard as not only are Cabrera Bello and Arnaus tied at the top, Samuel De Val and defending champion Jon Rahm are, respectively, one and two shots behind.

Rahm, Cabrera Bello and Arnaus played together on the opening two days of play making a great spectacle for locals fans.

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The Roll Continues for Whitney Hillier

West Australian Whitney Hillier’s recent good form continued in round two of the Hero Women’s Indian Open adding a second round of 71 on day two of the Ladies European Tour event to take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram.

Hillier, who recovered from a double bogey at the 10th with four birdies over her closing nine, leads over Norwegian Marian Skarpnord.

Hillier finished 7th in Spain last week and appears to have found something in her game. She puts some of her performance this week down to the similarities of this week’s layout to her home course in Perth.

“It was a little bit up and down in the middle there but I got it back really well, so I’m quite proud of that,” said the 28-year-old, who loves playing in the heat in India.

“I was two-over after 10 and then I got it back to finish one-under for the day. I hit it close on 17 and 18, where I used the slope quite well.

“It’s funny, I’m from Joondalup Golf Club, which is actually quite similar, shots wise. I just realised that this course has the ‘Lake’ and ‘Quarry’ nines, which is exactly the same as at Joondalup. I’m not kidding, it’s so surreal.”

The other Australian to make the cut was Queensland’s professional debutante, Becky Kay, who is in 31st place after her second round of 77.

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Won Joon Lee tied for 3rd in Japan

Former Sydney golfer, Won Joon Lee, is the best of the Australians at the halfway mark of the Japan Tour’s Tokai Classic in Nagoya, the 33 year old adding a second round of 69 to his opening 70 to be three shots from the lead held by the ever present Shugo Imahira and  Mikumu Horikawa.

Lee has yet to win in five years on the Japan Tour and now five years into his Japan Tour career he will be keen to finally convert several near misses to victory.

Lee is currently 33rd on the Japan Tour money list for 2019 and is therefore clear of any real concern about retaining his status for next season but he will be keen to take advantage of this improved showing.

Brad Kennedy is 31st, Dylan Perry 41st and New Zealander Michael Hendry 52nd.

Lee has won only one event on a recognised tour in his career to date, that victory coming in Korea earlier this year but this week might well offer the chance for the talented Koren born golfer to finally get across the line in Japan.

Joint leader, Imahira, has been a standout on the Japan Tour in recent times and in fact this year is currently in 2nd place on the money list there.

 

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Whitney Hillier Finds Purple Patch of Form

Whitney Hillier – Ladies European Tour

What a couple of weeks it has been for West Australia’s Ladies European Tour golfer golfer, Whitney Hillier.

Last week at the Estrella Damm Mediterranean Ladies Open in Spain she holed in one during her second round of the event in Sitges in Spain which led to a round of 66 and in Thursday’s opening round of this week’s Hero Women’s Indian Open she shared the lead after the opening round.

Her 7th place finish last week was just her 2nd top ten of the season and moved her to 42nd on the Ladies European Tour money list but she has a chance to improve that position considerably after her opening round of 67 in Gurugram.

“I shot five-under today,” said the 28 year old Hillier. “I made six birdies and I bogeyed the first hole, so I actually got that back pretty quickly. Overall I’m really happy with my performance today. I hit my irons well and gave myself lots of birdie chances.

“The course is looking great, as well. Last time I was here it was 2015 and it has changed a lot since then. It is very, very impressive. It’s a beautiful golf course and one of the best in the world, I think.”

Hillier shares the lead with Englishwoman, Meghan MacLaren.

Interestingly Hillier was not the only Australian female professional to hole in one last week. Sarah Kemp produced a similar feat o

n the LPGA Tour in a tournament in Indianapolis.

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Jason Scrivener Starts Well in Spain

Jason Scrivener – file photo

Perth’s Jason Scrivener heads the eight Australians at the European Tour’s Open de Espana in Madrid, the West Australian in a share of 9th place and four from the leader, Kristian Krogh Johannessen.

Scrivener, currently in 57th place in the Race to Dubai Rankings, continues his push to be in the field for the season ending DP World Championship in Dubai in late November but in order to be so he needs to be inside the top 50.

After a solid start to the year Scrivener’s form in recent weeks has been well below his best but this is an encouraging start to an event which could play a role in his fortunes later in the year.

Scrivener raced to the turn in 30 in his opening round but lost momentum with a homeward nine of 37 although his round of 67 has him well placed heading into tomorrow’s second round.

European Tour rookies Jake McLeod and Deyen Lawson recorded rounds of 68 to be tied for 18th, while Dimi Papadatos and Brett Rumford were the next best of the Australians after their rounds of 1 under 70.

Norway’s Johannessen leads by one over Spanish player Adri Arnaus but amongst the group just two off the lead are defending champion Jon Rahm and his fellow Spaniard Rafa Cabrera Bello.

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Golf Betting Thoughts for October 2nd

Jon Rahm – hot favourite to defend his national open title in Madrid.

This week we take a look at the PGA Tour’s Shriners Hospitals for Children event in Las Vegas, the European Tour’s Open de Spain in Madrid and the Volunteers of America LPGA Texas Classic in Dallas.

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Marc Leishman’s Weekend Magic Earns 3rd Place in California

Two weeks ago Marc Leishman was forced to withdraw from the recent Military Tribute at Greenbrier following an injury caused by a wayward shot from a pro-am partner but he has bounced back in style with a 3rd place finish at the Safeway Open in California.

Leishman’s final round of 65 at the Silverado Country Club was the equal best of the day and improved the Victorian golfer 19 places from his overnight standing to record his equal best finish of the 2019 season.

Leishman only just made the cut on Friday but he stormed through the field over the weekend with rounds of 67 and 65 to finish in outright 3rd place and three shots behind the winner Cameron Champ.

It was a good week overall for the Australians with Cameron Percy continuing his fine start to the season with a share of 7th place and Adam Scott fighting back after leading early then fading on Friday and Saturday before a final round of 68 saw him finish 17th.

For Cameron Percy he has now earned US$377,000 in three events since regaining his PGA Tour card via the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Aaron Baddeley and Rhein Gibson finished tied for 33rd.

For the winner, Champ, one of the game’s longest hitters, it was his second victory on the PGA Tour and comes 11 months after his win at the Sanderson Farms Championship which was his second start on the PGA Tour.

Champ birdied his final hole to win by one over Canadian Adam Hadwin, birdies at the final three holes by Hadwin forcing Champ to fight to the end after holding a commanding lead with just a few holes to play.

The 24-year old Californian’s victory was an emotional one as he juggled contention in his home state with the terminal illness of his grandfather.

“Not matter if I win one more tournament or ten more tournaments this will be the greatest win of my career,” said Champ reflecting on the timing of the victory and his close association with his grandfather.

 

 

 

 

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