Scotland’s David Drysdale secured the second European Challenge Tour victory of his career at the Peugeot Challenge R.C.G. El Prat after an outstanding final round of four under par 68 that saw him overhaul Sweden’s Johan Axgren at the top of the leaderboard to secure the €19,200 and propel him from 76th to ninth place on the Challenge Tour Rankings.
Drysdale’s victory signals the end of a spell of dreadful luck for the 31 year old. He finished last season in 117th place on The European Tour Order of Merit and therefore missed out on retaining his Tour card by one place, and then finished one stroke away from regaining that same card at the Final Stage of The European Tour Qualifying School.
But, as is typical of the player, Drysdale refused to wallow in tales of what might have been and hard luck stories. He has returned to the Challenge Tour and done what every good player in his position should have done – let his golf do the talking.
He played some great stuff throughout the week at the demanding, Greg Norman designed, Real Club de Golf El Prat in Barcelona, reserving his best performance of the four days until the final round, when he overhauled Axgren’s three shot advantage to beat the Swede by two strokes.
His last round started brilliantly with two birdies in his opening three holes, and, as he left the tenth green, he had added another two birdies to have established a four stroke lead with eight holes to play. That remained until he bogeyed the 16th, a slip up he rectified instantly by birdieing the 17th.
A par five at the last saw him into the clubhouse on ten under par 278, and not even Axgren’s eagle at the last just ten minutes after Drysdale had finished his round could affect the final result.
“I’m over the moon,” said Drysdale. “I just wish I could bottle whatever it is that makes me play the way I did this week because I can never tell when it’s coming. I played in the Portuguese Open last week and did well to make the cut, but then just played badly over the weekend to finish last.
“Then I turn up in Barcelona this week and play fantastically. It baffles me sometimes but I suppose if we could all put our finger on what makes us play so well then we’d all have been at Augusta this week!”
Drysdale did have a little extra help en route to victory in Spain. His caddie for the week – Bryan Byrne – was working for the Scotsman because his usual boss, Irishman Gary Murphy, has been at home for the past fortnight waiting on his wife Elaine to give birth to their first child.
Drysdale and Byrne have been friends for years, and he was quick to thank Byrne for the massive contribution he made to the victory.
“It made an unbelievable difference having Bryan on the bag this week,” Drysdale admitted. “He just gave me a lot of confidence and every time he gave me a club and a yardage I trusted it and that is hugely important – especially when you are in with a chance of wining and the pressure is on. So I have to say a big thank you to Bryan, as well as my wife Vicki and my sponsors at the Clydesdale Bank in Scotland, who have been great to me recently.”
