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Orr's 72nd hole eagle
clinches title
Scotland's Gary Orr snatched
victory in the Algarve Portuguese Open with an eagle on the last hole to beat
Welshman Philip Price by one shot.
Orr fired
a closing 69 to Price's 70 to finish with a four-round total of 13-under par
at the par-72 Penina course, edging Price by a nose after the pair were tied
overnight.
England's
Brian Davis, Tony Johnstone of Zimbabwe and Ireland's Paul McGinley tied for
third, four shots adrift of Orr.
Price burst
out of the blocks on the final round, firing two birdies in the first three holes
to take a two-shot lead. He added another at the par-5 fifth, but an eagle from
Orr kept the gap to just one stroke.
Orr levelled
it with another birdie at the sixth before Price once again wrestled the advantage
at the seventh.
Both players
bogied the 10th and 12th but Orr drew level on the par-4 14th with his second
birdie, only to drop a shot at the 17th leaving himself with a birdie going up
th e last to force a play-off.
But the
32-year-old Orr produced a three at the par-5 18th to snatch the win from Price's
grasp.
"You'd be lying if
you said it didn't bother you," admitted Orr, who is also looking forward
to celebrating the birth of his first child in May.
"You don't want to
keep finishing second and it does frustrate you a bit.
"I've tried not to
let it get to me and put it to the back of my mind but it's actually been a spur,
because I hadn't won a tournament it made me work a lot harder.
"It's a big psychological
barrier, until you've won you don't know what you're capable of, although I always
felt I had the game to win.
"It's a dream to do
something like that and win with an eagle on the last.
"It's happened against me
a few times so it's nice to do it for once.
"It's great, it's what
everybody works hard for. It's not easy if things don't go your way but you just
have to keep plugging away and hope things come right."
A disappointed Price added:
"I was struggling on the back nine, just not playing well and Gary played
better.
"He played the last perfectly
so I think he deserved to win. An eagle on the last is tough to beat.
"This is one of my
favourite tournaments, I would love to win it again but I'll have to wait till
next year."
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