Golf French OpenChristmas came early for Philip Golding yesterday and as a result Christmas may never be the same again. Golding, the journeyman's journeyman, who has paid a record 16 visits to the European tour's qualifying school, yesterday won the French Open, his first victory in 14 years of trying.
It was his 201st event as a tour professional and in the previous 200 his best finish had been sixth, as long ago as 1996. A final round 69, three-under, at the Paris National course gave him a 15-under total of 273, to beat David Howell by one and Justin Rose and Peter O'Malley by two.
He won €416,660 which compares very nicely with the 429,388 he had won in his entire career before this year. He finished off in style by birdieing the 72nd, his second over the greenside lake, the stroke of his life.
But the shock of his, and two other golfers lives, awaited him. For the first time in European tour history dope tests were applied to three of the leaders, Golding, Howell and O'Malley, Rose being excused presumably on the grounds that he has been suffering from a virulent cough and cold all week.
Golding, from Luton, with no experience of contending in an event to this stature, played the final nine holes knowing that Rose had set a 13-under benchmark. That meant he needed to complete them in at least one and probably two under par to win, a daunting proposition even for the best. But Golding stuck to the classic formula.
"I just played one shot at a time," he said. "I wasn't afraid to look at the leaderboard. I was conscious of it. I saw that David (Howell) had birdied the last so I said to my caddie 'Four to win' which you always dream of.
"I trusted my swing, hit the fairway and then hit a six-iron 167 yards over the water. I tried not to think of my family. I knew they would be going mental every time I holed a putt and I knew I would get emotional if I thought of them. It was undoubtedly the longest weekend of my life and winning at the age of 40 is absolutely incredible.
"I know that last year, after Malcolm Mackenzie won after 509 attempts people were saying if he can win, so can I. Well, now they'll be saying if Phil Golding can win, so can I."
So the man who has never finished better than 119th on the Volvo Order of Merit can now contemplate the car of his dreams. "A Porsche," he said, "I've always wanted one of those." The win spells an end to what had become his annual attendance at the tour qualifying school. He is exempt from all qualifying as a result of this win for two years and the man who once said he would not know what Christmas was like without the school will be able to afford much bigger and better celebrations.
Guess who said the following, after an amateur photographer clicked on his backswing, costing him two shots and, quite possibly, the tournament? "Well, I suppose it narked me a little. But it's just part of playing tournaments, basically. It's life. There's nothing you can do about it. It could cost me the tournament, but what can you do?" If you guessed Colin Montgomerie you have not been paying attention. If you guessed Justin Rose you correctly identified one of golf's natural gentlemen, who, on Saturday suffered the stupid snapper and the resultant severe penalty, and yet managed to keep control of himself.
Rose explained: "When I was growing up there was always a premium on behaving myself. When you are 12, 13 playing in the monthly medals with the older members they are not going to put up with spoilt brats." He went on: "The incident happened on the seventh and by the eighth tee I was back in control. I do get angry, which is part of the passion of wanting to win. But you just can't let it show."
Rose, who suffered a penalty stroke when he trod on his ball in the first round, obviously had his chances to win. He could even have improved on his last round 65 when he failed to birdie three of the four par fives, all of them in reach.
Players can be suckered and the pin-placing at the short second enticed a ridiculous percentage and effectively knocked them out of the tournament.
The hole is shaped like a T, with water in front, and to the left of the green and yesterday the pin was as far left as it could be. That meant it was possible to carry the water at the front but if the shot was just slightly pulled, the ball would probably run off into the lake anyway.
Yesterday it did for Thomas Bjorn, second overnight, who took five; Stephen Gallacher, joint seventh, who took seven and Jose Manuel Lara, joint ninth, who took six. And those were just the contenders.
FRENCH OPEN
(Le Golf National, Paris)
Leading Finals totals
273 - P Golding 66 70 68 69 (€416,660).
274 - D Howell 71 65 69 69 (€277,770).
275 - J Rose 68 69 73 65, P O'Malley (Aus) 70 69 66 70 (€140,750 each).
276 - S Wakefield 70 70 70 66, A Oldcorn 69 70 69 68, B Davis 68 72 68 68.
277 - B Dredge 67 72 70 68, S Gallacher 68 69 69 71, B Lane 70 68 67 72, P Fulke (Swe) 70 68 67 72.
278 - JM Olazabal (Spa) 70 68 69 71, R Jacquelin (Fra) 70 68 68 72, T Bjorn (Den) 70 64 71 73 .
279 - S Leaney (Aus) 70 70 71 68, Matthew Blackey 71 71 68 69, RJ Derksen (Ned) 68 74 66 71.
280 - A Marshall 69 74 70 67, Graeme McDowell 70 68 73 69, S Luna (Spa) 70 70 70 70, MA Martin (Spa) 70 68 70 72, JM Lara (Spa) 67 69 71 73.
Other Irish scores: 282 - P McGinley 71 72 69 70. 284 - Gary Murphy 68 74 74 68, Peter Lawrie 69 73 67 75. 288 - Ronan Rafferty 70 72 71 75.
