Hensby - claimed victory. (Getty Images)
Click here for all the latest golf scores
Click here for more golf news
Bristol golfer John Morgan produced an out-of-this-world performance on the US
Tour tonight before losing a play-off to Australian Mark Hensby in the John
Deere Classic.
Hensby won at the second extra hole, the par-three 16th at Deere Run in
Illinois, after Morgan pulled his tee shot into the hazard left of the green and
went from there into sand the other side.
The 26-year-old almost sank the bunker shot, but Hensby then made his par to
take the 684,000 dollars (£366,000) first prize. Morgan's consolation was a
cheque for 410,400 dollars (£220,000).
Also at stake was a place in this week's Open championship at Royal Troon,
although Hensby was apparently undecided about whether he wanted to make the
trip.
Before the sudden death could be decided, the two players, who had tied on 16
under par, were subjected to an hour-long rain delay because of an approaching
storm.
Morgan faced a putt of approaching 80 feet on his return and knocked it nine
feet past, but made that to stay alive.
A lowly 410th in the world and 236th on the US Tour money list this season
with 10,302 dollars (£5,500) after making one cut in five starts, Morgan had
earlier shot a closing 65, creating a huge roar when he holed a 25-foot birdie
putt on the final green.
Hensby had to get up and down from sand on that hole to match him.
"I don't know what planet I'm on at the moment," said Morgan as he tried to
get his head round what he had just achieved.
"The crowd made me feel so good and made me want to hole that putt so they
would go even more crazy.
"It's all a bit of a blur at the moment. I was just plugging away and just
seeing what would happen."
He had to try to control his emotions not only because of the play-off, but
also because he is epileptic and has had seizures on the course before.
Morgan, recognisable by his back-to-front cap and sometimes by blue-tinted
hair as well, had been a professional for little more than six months when he
earned a US Tour card at the end of 2002.
He earned over 400,000 dollars (£215,000) last year, but that was good enough
only for 141st place on the Order of Merit and so he had to go back to the
qualifying school.
Failing to come through that meant he had to wait for his chances this year
and the first six months were ones of near total frustration.
But as he did not need reminding, it takes only one great week to make it a
great year.
It was that whether he won the play-off or not - but the Open bonus added to
the drama.
Morgan's display was even more staggering considering his own appearance in
Europe this year, at the British Masters, saw him finish joint 148th out of
156.
Collated fourth and final round scores in the John Deere Classic, The TPC at
Deere Run, United States of America (USA unless stated, par 71):
268 Mark Hensby (Aus) 68 65 69 66, John E Morgan (Eng) 66 69 68 65 (Mark
Hensby wins play-off at 2nd extra hole)
269 Jose Coceres (Arg) 62 68 68 71
270 Greg Chalmers (Aus) 64 67 69 70, Joel Kribel 70 65 70 65, Steve Stricker
71 67 64 68, Vijay Singh (Fij) 69 67 67 67
271 John Rollins 66 69 69 67, Stewart Cink 70 65 67 69, Jeff Sluman 69 68 66
68
272 Scott Hoch 68 68 68 68, Jeff Brehaut 65 70 68 69, Jay Haas 67 68 67 70
273 Robert Gamez 67 68 67 71, Patrick Sheehan 69 66 69 69, Vaughn Taylor 63 69
70 71, Jason Bohn 67 71 68 67, Carl Paulson 68 72 67 66, Scott McCarron 70 69 65
69
274 Len Mattiace 68 68 69 69, Zach Johnson 70 69 65 70, Jim McGovern 67 69 68
70, Casey Wittenberg 68 71 66 69
275 Olin Browne 68 71 68 68, Glen Day 70 68 70 67, Joe Durant 66 69 67 73
276 J.L. Lewis 67 73 68 68, Tom Pernice Jnr. 68 68 67 73, Hank Kuehne 69 68 68
71, David Morland IV (Can) 71 69 66 70, Shigeki Maruyama (Jpn) 70 70 69 67
277 Chris DiMarco 72 66 72 67, Ben Crane 69 71 70 67, Stan Utley 70 69 67 71,
Lucas Glover 68 67 72 70, Kevin Sutherland 67 69 73 68, Aaron Barber 66 70 76
65, Joel Edwards 71 68 70 68
278 Wes Short jr. 68 71 71 68, Daniel Chopra (Swe) 64 72 73 69, Neal Lancaster
70 70 69 69, Mark Wilson 68 68 70 72, John Senden (Aus) 70 69 72 67, Harrison
Frazar 69 71 70 68, Bart Bryant 70 68 69 71
279 Ted Purdy 65 71 73 70, Jason Dufner 68 72 71 68, Kris Cox 69 71 68 71,
Hidemichi Tanaka (Jpn) 72 67 70 70, Woody Austin 69 70 68 72, Mike Heinen 70 66
71 72, Briny Baird 69 68 68 74, Todd Fischer 69 70 69 71, Nick Price (Zim) 68 70
69 72
280 Donnie Hammond 71 67 72 70, Mike Springer 70 70 71 69, Carlos Franco (Par)
70 67 73 70, J.P. Hayes 69 68 68 75
281 Chris Smith 67 73 73 68, Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 68 68 74, Kirk Triplett
68 72 68 73, Willie Wood 70 68 74 69, Todd Hamilton 67 70 71 73
282 Jonathan Byrd 67 72 70 73, Richard S Johnson (Swe) 68 68 72 74
283 Pat Perez 70 69 75 69
284 David Edwards 69 70 73 72, Roland Thatcher 70 68 73 73, Kevin Na (Kor) 70
70 71 73
285 Tripp Isenhour 70 70 71 74, DJ Brigman 69 71 74 71, Roger Tambellini 68 70
74 73, J J Henry 68 72 74 71
286 Patrick Moore 72 68 68 78, Matt Kuchar 69 70 72 75
 E-mail Article  Print-Friendly
 Subscribe to RSS Feed
 Post to del.icio.us
 Facebook
Click here to send us your sporting feedback
|
