Luke Donald may be hundreds of miles away at the BMW PGA Championship but his golfing prowess was having a profound effect on the Challenge Tour’s Telenet Trophy this weekend as Eddie Pepperell had a YouTube video of the World Number Two to thank for his title push.
Pepperell, who won on his first appearance this year at the ALLIANZ Open Côtes d’Armor Bretagne two weeks ago with a nerveless performance that belied his 21 years, was struggling around the greens in the opening two days in Belgium.
He still made the cut, however, and he had a YouTube video lesson on the short game featuring Donald to thank for his emergence as he launched himself right into contention in Belgium thanks to a superb six under par round of 65 at Ravenstein Royal Golf Club of Belgium.
“I watched some short game stuff with Luke Donald this morning on YouTube,” said Pepperell, who won the Portuguese Amateur Championship in an impressive amateur career. “I was struggling with chipping and pitching and the feel around the greens so I watched some of his stuff.
“I love watching him, the way he plays, his short game. So a few of his tips really helped me out there around the greens.
“I guess I got a few more confidence with my lines on the back nine too and I tried to be more aggressive with the putts and they just dropped. I didn’t do anything tremendously different, the putting and short game just suddenly worked so it was good.”
After starting the day eight shots off the lead, Pepperell was two shots off midway through the third day at the Telenet Trophy as overnight leader Marco Crespi struggled early on, carding three bogeys in the opening five holes.
Alexandre Kaleka and Olly Whitely took to the top of the leaderboard on eight under for the tournament, with the Frenchman one under through six holes and his English counterpart one under through five.
