Excitement until the last moment in the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters, a European Tour tournament played at the Real Club Valderrama and decided in favor of John Catlin (+2). The American won his first victory on the circuit at the expense of Martin Kaymer, winner of two majors and one of the Ryder stars attending the tournament, whom he beat by one stroke on the San Roque course.
The course located in Sotogrande again offered beauty and severity on the final day and, for the fourth time in twenty-five European Tour tournaments held at Valderrama, the winner finished above par. Even so, nothing to object to John Catlin’s triumph, quite the contrary. Despite losing his lead before reaching the decisive stretch after accumulating several errors, Catlin showed remarkable mettle to win in the last match against Kaymer, who was looking for his first victory in six years.
Despite finishing with 75 (+4), Catlin finished the job by keeping his composure on the final green, after Kaymer missed a good birdie opportunity on the 17th hole, one of the icons of the Real Club Valderrama, and missed the putt for the decisive par on the last hole.
“I still haven’t assimilated it and I spent the whole last round very nervous. It’s a very difficult golf course, the greens are firm and fast, and the wind didn’t let up compared to the previous days”, recapped Catlin, who already had three victories on the Asian Tour to his name.
Valderrama is capable of making even the calmest player nervous, something that both Catlin and Kaymer (and, of course, the other contenders for the title) could see for themselves, but he ended up acting, once again, as a fair judge on the 18th hole.
“The trickiest thing here is to hit fairways. The wind is crosswind on most of them, so if you hit the ball with the wrong spin you will end up in the rough, and the greens are getting firmer and firmer. The fairways are essential and the difference was probably the one I hit on the 18th hole,” recalled Catlin, who also spared no praise for Valderrama.
With his victory in the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters, John Catlin follows in the footsteps of Tiger Woods, who to date had been the only American player capable of winning at Real Club Valderrama (in the 1999 WGC American Express Championship), and is only behind Sandy Lyle among the winners of a tournament on this course who have finished above par, since the Scot finished with +3 in the 1992 Volvo Masters.
Unfortunately, there were no options for the title for the Spaniards present in the tournament. Adrián Otaegui was the one who started closest to the lead, but two early mistakes weighed down his round. His card did not match his game, but in the end he dropped to seventeenth place tied with Álvaro Quirós and Jorge Campillo, all of them with +9.
Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning the last round of the Englishman Lee Westwood, another of the great champions present at Valderrama, as he signed on Sunday the best card of all participants in the week (67, -4) and climbed 51 positions to tenth place.
The Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters, a European Tour tournament valid for the Race to Dubai and held thanks to the essential collaboration of Real Club Valderrama, is sponsored by Estrella Damm and the Ministry of Tourism, Regeneration, Justice and Local Administration of the Junta de Andalucía, as well as being co-financed with European funds and declared an event of exceptional public interest by the Government of Spain. The tournament is also supported by Rolex, Exterior Plus, Santander Private Banking and Shell. Callaway, Coca-Cola, Enterprise, Grupo Raga, Kyocera, Marca, Maui Jim, the Royal Andalusian Golf Federation, Riversa, Varma and Volvo are official suppliers.
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