Ken Borland

Ross Fisher celebrates victory for the first time in nearly four years

A top-class display of patient golf saw Ross Fisher claim a three-stroke victory in the European Tour/Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned Tshwane Open at the Els Club Copperleaf on Sunday.

Fisher began the final day with a five-shot lead but had to endure an impressive challenge from Northern Irishman Michael Hoey and also some pressure from Spaniard Carlos del Moral before posting a two-under-par 70 to finish on 20-under-par and claim a fifth European Tour victory after a winning drought of nearly four years.

The Englishman laboured around the front nine in one-under 35, his iron play and putting lacking the brilliant sharpness of the previous two days, and Hoey closed to within a stroke after sinking a 25-foot birdie putt on the 11^th hole, to follow up an eagle on the par-five fourth and birdies at the first and eighth holes.

But Hoey then saw his approach shot on the par-four 12^th slide into the water hazard protecting the green, leading to a double-bogey, and he eventually finished with a 68 to trail Fisher by three strokes.

Del Moral twice closed to within two shots of Fisher, but erred crucially with bogeys on the 14^th and 17^th holes, finishing alone in fourth place on 16-under.

Young South African Danie van Tonder produced the round of the day with a 66 to finish tied in second place with Hoey, taking R1.7 million from his best-ever finish on the summer tour.

Fisher sealed victory on the 578-metre 15^th hole when he rolled in a superb eagle putt from 20 feet to give him a four-shot lead.

“I was 263 metres from the pin after a real good drive and then I really ripped a hybrid, probably the flushest I’ve hit for a long time. That was a massive turning point, I couldn’t buy a putt before that, and then I didn’t have to push any more, I didn’t have to take driver coming in,” Fisher said after his triumph.

“I knew patience would be the biggest thing today, just hitting the green and making the other guys get birdies. And Mike hitting into the water on 12 was also a big thing, it gave me a breather,” the 33-year-old said.

Fisher also had to handle the additional challenges posed by almost-continual rain and then a blustery wind.

“The weather wasn’t kind and it wasn’t quite the fireworks and spectacular golf I hoped for. The eagle on four by Mike really pushed me, but I felt like I was giving myself chances and the birdie on seven was a very good one, there were many bogeys there today. I then felt I had some shots to spare because the back nine has been very kind to me,” he said.

The 2010 Ryder Cup player is now back into the top 65 on the world rankings and closer to his goal of making the top 50 and once again competing in the majors and the famous team event between Europe and the United States.

Behind the impressive Van Tonder, Hennie Otto, the 2011 SA Open champion, was the next best South African, a 68 in the final round leaving him alone in fifth place on 15-under.

http://citizen.co.za/136519/fisher-claims-three-stroke-victory-tshwane-open/

Englishman Ross Fisher stretched his lead to five strokes as he fired a five-under-par 67 in the third round of the European Tour/Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned Tshwane Open at the Els Club Copperleaf on Saturday.

Fisher had started the penultimate day with just a one-shot lead over Morten Orum Madsen, and two ahead of Simon Dyson and Carlos del Moral, but the 2010 Ryder Cup player birdied the sixth, seventh and ninth holes to reach the turn in 33 and then collected two more birdies on the back nine as he took firm control of the R22.3 million tournament.

The 33-year-old will go into the final round on 18-under-par, with his nearest challengers being Northern Irishman Michael Hoey on 13-under, Dyson and Del Moral on 12-under and seven golfers on 11-under, including South Africans Merrick Bremner, Hennie Otto, Danie van Tonder, Trevor Fisher Junior and Darren Fichardt.

On a wet, miserable day, no one was really able to make a move on Fisher, with compatriot Robert Rock’s seven-under-par 65 the best round of the day and that moved him into a tie for 12^th on 10-under.

Madsen, who won the South African Open in Johannesburg in November, unravelled badly and his round was like a disaster movie, finishing with three successive bogeys to leave him on nine-under for the tournament, nine strokes behind Fisher, and in a tie for 15^th.

Fisher, who began his third round with two bogeys in his first five holes, said his aim in the final round would be to produce birdies and thereby eliminate the threat of the sort of exciting come-from-behind charge the promoters of the tournament would love.

“Five shots is a nice lead, but I expect good scores behind me in the final round, especially if the weather is hot and sunny. So I’ll be aiming to shoot in the 60s again, I’ll play aggressively and make as many birdies as possible. In that way I’ll put heat on the others and they’ll have to shoot something silly to catch me,” Fisher said after his third-successive sub-68 round.

Fisher, a prodigious driver of the ball, has overcome the longest course in European Tour history with his excellence off the tee and some brilliant long-iron play, hitting 86% of the greens in regulation. When he errs, he knows his short game is good enough to make up for it, as shown by fine up-and-downs on the 14^th and 18^th holes.

Hoey managed to maintain the momentum from his second round, in which he collected seven successive birdies on the back nine, to shoot a 69 on Friday and climb even further up the leaderboard.

“I kept my rhythm well from yesterday and I was able to tap into those seven birdies in a row. The course is long and wet, and I was very happy with my putting.

“I had a couple of sloppy swings and misjudgements, but it’s easier to accept those when you’re putting well and scoring well,” Hoey said after his round that included three bogeys and six birdies.

Both Dyson and Del Moral struggled to get going on Saturday, shooting one-under-par 71s, and Fisher is clearly going to be extremely hard to beat in the final round.

“I’m playing as good as ever, similar to when I contended in the majors, and my goal is to get back into the top 50 in the world – I feel I belong there. To win here would be a massive confidence boost and a step in the right direction,” Fisher said.

http://citizen.co.za/136238/fisher-extends-lead-tshwane-open/

Englishman Ross Fisher has stormed into the lead after the second round of the Tshwane Open at the Els Club Copperleaf with a brilliant seven-under-par 65 in the co-sanctioned event on Friday.

Fisher has represented Europe in the Ryder Cup and been ranked as high as number 17 in the world, but has struggled in recent times with his putting. But the 33-year-old showed on Friday what a quality player he is when all facets of his game click, as it did on the back nine where he picked up four birdies and an eagle.

Ross Fisher - happy with his putter

Fisher is on 13-under-par for the tournament and has a one-stroke lead over SA Open champion Morten Orum Madsen, who also shot a 65. That best score of the day was matched by Spaniard Carlos del Moral, who climbed into a tie for third on 11-under with joint first-round leader Simon Dyson.

South Africa’s Jake Roos also shot a 65 to climb to 10-under alongside compatriots Trevor Fisher Junior, who began the second round sharing the lead with Dyson, and Darren Fichardt, who was once again bogey-free in making 68 on Friday.

Fisher, who has not played in South Africa since the 2007/8 summer, said his strong desire to make the Ryder Cup team again has prompted his return to these shores. The move paid off with a tied-third finish at the Alfred Dunhill Championship at Leopard Creek  and a tied-10^th finish at the Joburg Open earlier this month.

“Having been in the Ryder Cup in 2010, having that experience, and then missing it in 2012, I was gutted. This year’s Ryder Cup team is a massive goal of mine. I feel that my game is better and I really want to make a strong push for the team, that’s why I’m playing more tournaments like these,” Fisher said.

“It’s very difficult for us as foreigners to win here because the South Africans obviously know how to play here. But I’ve felt ready to win for a long time, it’s just piecing all the departments of my game together in one tournament. The long game has been there for a while and my irons, it’s just the putting that has let me down. To see the ball go in today has given me lots of confidence.”

The back nine was the place to go low on Friday – Northern Ireland’s Michael Hoey collected seven birdies in a row to move to 10-under – and Madsen was another to excel, although he started his round on the 10^th hole.

“I birdied four of the first five and that’s always a great way to start off your round and put yourself in a good mindset. I had a hiccup on 15 and 16 not making birdie there, but luckily I got one on 17 and I was off and rolling again,” Madsen said.

The highly-promising Dane said he had to police his emotions on the front nine and he managed to remain bogey-free.

“Winning has calmed me down a little bit, just by knowing what to expect. It’s hard to birdie every hole and you’ve got to deal with adversity well, because you’re not going to play perfect golf for 72 holes. Whoever deals with the bad holes and bad shots the best is probably also the guy who’s going to be on top come Sunday. I stayed patient in the beginning of my back nine and made a couple of birdies on six and seven, and then I saved a nice par on nine, so it was a nice way to finish,” the 25-year-old said.

Dyson also started on the back nine and was level-par at the turn, but managed to come home in four-under to remain strongly in contention.

“I was missing a few drives and a few shots into the greens. I managed to correct it coming in and four-under is about right, it keeps the confidence going,” Dyson said.

http://citizen.co.za/135895/fisher-takes-control-tshwane-open/

Trevor Fisher Junior on his way to seven-under

Late starters Simon Dyson and Trevor Fisher Junior claimed the first-round lead of the European Tour/Sunshine Tour co-sanctioned Tshwane Open at the Els Club Copperleaf on Thursday after a weather-curtailed opening round.

Dyson, teeing off at midday in match 29 of 39 to go off the first tee, staged a spectacular finish to his round as he collected four successive birdies to post a seven-under-par 65.

Fisher Junior teed off 50 minutes later and his round was suspended by a large storm that arrived at Copperleaf at 5.30pm, but the South African had already moved to seven-under-par through 16 holes by then.

Both Fisher Junior and Englishman Dyson played bogey-free rounds.

Earlier in the day, South Africans Jared Harvey and Erik van Rooyen, and Englishman Ross Fisher had claimed a share of the early lead with 66s, before being overtaken by Dyson and Fisher Junior.

South Africans Darren Fichardt, through 17 holes, and Danie van Tonder were also on six-under-par when play was called off for the day.

South African Open champion Morten Orum Madsen was in a six-man group on five-under-par, having eagled the par-four seventh hole and then picking up a second eagle on the par-five 15^th when he hit his approach shot stone-dead. The Dane was about to hit his second shot on the 18^th hole when play was suspended.

Dyson, a six-time European Tour winner, credited his fine round to his ability to recover from lost causes.

“It was a really nice finish, set up by three really good up-and-downs on the three previous holes. On 15 and 16 I also managed to get up-and-down from near the green for birdies and it’s my lowest round for a few years,” Dyson said.

The 36-year-old is also on the comeback trail after a European Tour disciplinary hearing ruled in December that he had been guilty of a deliberate but un-premeditated breach of the rules when he was disqualified from the BMW Masters in Shanghai in October for illegally tapping down a spike mark before he putted. He was fined £30,000 and given a two-month suspended ban, but he admitted there were times when he feared his professional golfing career was dead.

“Today’s round definitely shows I’m in a good state of mind. The controversy gave me my love of the game back, there was a chance it was going to be taken away from me. It made me knuckle down and really enjoy the game again, which isn’t bad in my 14^th year on tour,” Dyson said.

Young Van Rooyen, who turned pro last year after playing American college golf for the University of Minnesota, led the qualifiers into the tournament with a 66, and he repeated that score on Thursday, although he admitted the strain of pre-qualifying for every tournament was taking its toll.

“The qualifiers are tough, it’s like a sprint because you only have one round. And then the actual tournament is like a marathon straight afterwards. You’re so happy and pumped that you’ve qualified, but then you have to re-set so you don’t lose focus on the first day. I am getting tired, I won’t lie, it’s quite a lot of pressure and a lot of golf,” Van Rooyen said.

But winning a co-sanctioned event changes lives and Van Rooyen is in line to not have to worry about qualifying any more.

Ross Fisher, number 82 in the world and the second-highest ranked golfer in the field, is lurking dangerously just one shot back and, ominously, says he feels quite comfortable playing in South Africa.

“My game feels in good shape and I don’t know what it is, I just enjoy playing down here and I seem to play quite well. The long game still feels like it’s there and if I can hole a few more putts then I think there will be some really low scores from me,” the 2010 Ryder Cup player said.

George Coetzee, the highest-ranked golfer in the field in 53^rd place, is in a tie for 36^th after shooting a 70, while defending champion Dawie van der Walt is in trouble on five-over-par through 15 holes.

http://www.thenewage.co.za/119857-18-53-Dyson_and_Fisher_share_Tshwane_open_lead