Pablo's fairytale comes true
2008-06-29 17:17
Versailles - Spanish rookie Pablo Larrazabal pulled off one of the most unexpected European PGA Tour wins in recent years when he captured the 4million euros French Open at Le Golf National on Sunday.
The 25-year-old from Barcelona had to qualify for the tournament and he was quoted at a distant 200-1 to win before it got underway.
But, refusing to be unnerved by the sight of Ryder Cup veterans Lee Westwood and Colin Montgomerie snapping at his heels, Larrazabal produced another sparkling round with seven birdies to complete a stunning wire-to-wire win.
The Spaniard closed with a 67 for a 15-under total of 269, four strokes ahead of Colin Montgomerie who had a 68 and with Denmark's Soren Hansen a further stroke back after he carded a 69.
It was his first tournament win in what is his rookie season on the European PGA Tour.
Sharing the final pairing with Denmark's Soren Hansen, and with Montgomerie and Westwood, two former European No 1s, directly ahead of them, Larrazabal saved par with a 14footer at the first and then sunk a 35-foot putt to birdie the second.
That sent out a clear statement to his challengers that he would not crumble under the pressure of what was the biggest round of golf he had played in his budding career.
Defiant style
Having started the day with a three-stroke lead, he moved to five clear after eight holes, although he then made a mess of the tough par-five ninth where he came away with a double-bogey.
But in spectacular and defiant style, Larrazabal sunk back-to-back nine-footers for birdies at the next two holes to stretch his lead to four strokes.
Westwood, coming off a third place finish behind Tiger Woods at the US Open, had threatened with a tremendous eagle-three at the third, but he saw his chance of a first win of the year after seven top 10 finishes, vanish when he three-putted from six-feet for a double-bogey six at the 12th.
Birdies at 10 and 11 kept Montgomerie's hopes alive of reeling in Larrazabal, but in all reality he needed the Spaniard, 20 years his junior, to collapse down the stretch and he gave no signs of doing that despite a dropped stroke at the 14th.
He still had the punishing final four holes at Le Golf National to navigate with watery graves lurking on three of them, but he did so with aplomb sinking birdies at the 15th and 16th and following up with steady pars at the final two.
His reward was a huge payday of 666 000 euros, a vast improvement to his lowly ranking of 128th in the European Tour Order of Merit and recognition that he could be a star of the future.
For Montgomerie, there was despair that he had come so close to winning a tournament for the first time in a year and at the same time give a huge boost to his hopes of making Europe's Ryder Cup side.