Goosen shows off the spoils of victory (Getty Images).
By Phil Casey, PA Sport, St Nom-la-Breteche
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Retief Goosen effectively gave up his crown as European number one
despite claiming his second victory in the 34th and final Lancome Trophy.
Goosen saw a five-shot lead reduced to just one on the back nine before seeing
off the challenge of Ryder Cup hero Paul McGinley to complete a wire-to-wire
victory.
The South African carded a final-round 70 for an 18-under-par total of 266,
four shots ahead of McGinley with England's Ian Poulter sharing third place
alongside France's Raphael Jacquelin a shot further back.
It was Goosen's fourth victory in France and the £209,000 first prize gave him
an outside chance of topping the Order of Merit for a third successive year.
The 34-year-old still trails compatriot Ernie Els by £1million, but with
almost £1.5million up for grabs in the next three events, could still have
pulled off an unlikely hat-trick.
But the 2001 US Open champion then revealed he was not playing the lucrative
Dunhill Links championships, with a first prize of more than £500,000, and will
play in America that week instead.
"It's a great event and it's nice to see them put that sort of prize money in
but it's not a format that suit me," said Goosen, whose victory took him to
10th in the Order of Merit.
"Last year at Kingsbarns we played six-and-a-half-hour rounds and in that
kind of weather, sitting on every tee for 20 minutes, I get stiff too
quickly."
Goosen began the day three shots ahead and stretched his lead to five after he
birdied the first and playing partner McGinley bogeyed.
That left Nicolas Colsaerts to take up the chase and twice he succeeded in
reducing his deficit to two shots. Firstly he eagled the sixth from 25 feet
while Goosen took six, and after Goosen birdied the seventh, the young Belgian
birdied the eighth.
Goosen went three clear again on the ninth when Colsaerts found trouble off
the tee, but there was more drama to come at the 11th.
With McGinley sitting just eight feet from the hole, Goosen took two to escape
from rough to the right of the fairway to make bogey, while Colsaerts escaped at
the first attempt from a similar spot only to find the water at the back of the
green.
That led to a double-bogey six and after Goosen had missed for par, McGinley
calmly holed to close the gap to just one shot.
Goosen could be forgiven for thinking back to 2001 when he lost a four-shot
lead with four holes to play against Sergio Garcia, but he responded to the
threat in style with birdies at the next two holes, the second from a matter of
inches, to edge three ahead again.
That proved decisive and Goosen's path to victory was sealed when both
McGinley and Colsaerts ran up double-bogey sevens on the 16th.
"It was tough because I was really struggling all day, especially with my
driver," added Goosen, who was victorious here in 2000 and has also won two
French Open titles.
"I was hitting it all over the golf course and used most of the golf course
to get it done but luckily it all turned my way on the 16th."
McGinley had the consolation of moving to the top of the fledgling Ryder Cup
points standings with his second place, although this was only the second
counting event in the race to qualify for Bernhard Langer's European team which
will defend the trophy at Oakland Hills next year.
"I needed to make a birdie on the 16th but my tee shot finished behind a tree
and I made seven, and after that I was battling for second which fortunately I
got," said the Irishman, who holed the winning putt against the United States
at The Belfry last September.
"I was up against one of the best players at the top of the game and I
finished four behind. He putted magnificently and deserved to win."
Poulter's third place gives him an outside chance of forcing his way into
England's World Cup team, but like Goosen he probably needs to win next week's
Linde German Masters - the last counting event - to have a realistic chance.
The team is made up of the top two players in the world rankings, with Paul
Casey 28th and Justin Rose 41st at the start of the week compared to Poulter's
position of 59th.
If he does miss out, it will at least give him the chance to finally have his
tonsils removed after being bothered by tonsillitis for years.
"I was really ill last week and could barely get out of bed for two days,"
said Poulter, who won in Wales earlier this season despite suffering from the
same ailment.
"I've booked November 11 to have them out, which is two days before the World
Cup, but I'll postpone it for a week if I make it."
Collated final scores (Gbr & Irl unless stated, Par 71, (x) denotes amateur):
266 Retief Goosen (Rsa) 63 65 68 70 (£209,043pds)
270 Paul McGinley 66 67 66 71 (£139,362)
271 Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 69 67 68 67, Ian Poulter 67 69 65 70 (£70,614
each)
272 Hennie Otto (Rsa) 69 65 70 68, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 66 66 68 72
273 Jean-Francois Remesy (Fra) 72 65 70 66
274 David Howell 69 70 67 68, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 66 66 73 69
275 Peter Fowler (Aus) 67 69 73 66, Marten Olander (Swe) 71 66 67 71, Damien
McGrane 68 68 67 72
276 Simon Wakefield 65 74 70 67, Euan Little 71 69 69 67, Maarten Lafeber
(Ned) 68 70 70 68, Padraig Harrington 68 68 71 69, Ian Woosnam 70 67 70 69,
Richard Bland 68 71 68 69
277 Nick O'Hern (Aus) 69 70 69 69, Steve Webster 69 71 68 69, Gary Evans 73 68
66 70, Eduardo Romero (Arg) 68 67 70 72, David Lynn 69 69 66 73
278 Jesus Maria Arruti (Spa) 70 68 73 67, Jarrod Moseley (Aus) 68 71 71 68,
Peter Baker 71 66 72 69, Mark McNulty (Zim) 68 67 72 71, Markus Brier (Aut) 68
70 69 71, John Bickerton 71 67 68 72, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 70 68 68 72
279 Robert-Jan Derksen (Ned) 68 73 71 67, Marcus Fraser (Aus) 67 73 71 68,
Nicolas Vanhootegem (Bel) 69 70 69 71
280 Gary Murphy 71 69 72 68, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 69 69 71 71, Stephen
Gallacher 71 68 69 72, Mikael Lundberg (Swe) 64 70 73 73
281 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 71 72 68, Gustavo Rojas (Arg) 70 70 69 72, Jorge
Berendt (Arg) 67 73 69 67, Philip Golding 69 70 69 73, David Drysdale 72 69 67
73, Mark Foster 71 69 67 74
282 Simon Dyson 71 67 77 67, Hunter Mahan (USA) 73 68 71 76, Titch Moore (Rsa)
68 72 71 71, Colin Montgomerie 68 72 70 72, Patrik Sjoland (Swe) 70 70 69 73,
Mads Vibe-Hastrup (Den) 72 68 68 74, Fredrik Widmark (Swe) 71 65 71 75, Charl
Schwartzel (Rsa) 68 70 69 75
283 Terry Price (Aus) 66 73 74 70, Andrew Raitt 70 71 70 72, Martin Maritz
(Rsa) 71 70 70 72, Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 70 72 73, Jamie Donaldson 68 69 70 76
284 Mark Pilkington 67 71 74 72, Murray Urquhart 74 63 74 73, Peter O'Malley
(Aus) 69 72 70 73
285 Santiago Luna (Spa) 68 73 75 69, Ian Garbutt 71 70 74 70, Thomas Norret
(Den) 75 66 73 71, Kenneth Ferrie 68 73 73 71, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 68 71 74
72, David Carter 69 70 74 72, Bradley Dredge 68 70 72 75, Henrik Nystrom (Swe)
72 68 69 71
286 Stephen Scahill (Nzl) 70 71 75 70, Matthew Blackey 71 70 72 73
287 Eddie Lee (Nzl) 70 71 75 71, Ben Curtis (USA) 69 72 74 72, Klas Eriksson
(Swe) 71 68 74 74, Shaun Webster 70 71 72 74, Raymond Russell 70 71 72 74
288 Gregory Havret (Fra) 71 69 73 75
289 Jonathan Lomas 69 71 71 78, Matthew Cort 71 69 71 78
290 Philip Archer 70 71 73 76
291 Fernando Roca (Spa) 69 71 75 76, Marc Farry (Fra) 71 70 72 78
295 Andrew Coltart 68 73 78 76
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