| Crans-sur-Sierre,
Switzerland, 6th September 1998 -
Germany's Sven Struver twice turned up trumps at the 18th hole on his way to landing
the European Masters title on Sunday. Struver
initially had a birdie on the last hole to force a play-off with Swede Patrik
Sjoland, then produced another birdie on the 18th -- the first extra hole of sudden-death
-- to win the tournament. Both
Struver and Sjoland had finished on 21-under-par 263, two shots ahead of playing-partner
Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland, after carding 66 and 70 respectively. Struver
had started the last round four shots behind the Swede but wiped out the deficit
by following up his two eagle-twos on the third round with another on the 290-yard
seventh. A drive
onto the green guarded by the Matterhorn put the squeeze on Sjoland but the Swede,
despite missing three short birdie putts, then moved three shots away from Struver
with three successive birdies from the ninth. However,
with the finishing-line in sight, Sjoland faltered with two more bogeys to be
caught again. Even then, he edged back one in front with a birdie at the 17th.
Yet Struver
was not to be denied, seizing a birdie at the last, and when he and Sjoland faced
10-foot putts at the first extra hole, it was the German's which went to ground.
"I've never
won in a sudden-death before," said Struver, son of a teaching pro, "so
it's a good way to add my third title. "I
came from seven shots behind Ernie Els to win my first, the South African PGA
Championship, so that was pretty memorable, but this was real excitement. "I
thought I'd need to shoot 63 or 64 to beat Patrik and wouldn't have thought 66
was good enough but the key was definitely the 18th. I played it five times altogether
and birdied it four times." Three
missed putts of around the five-foot mark before getting back on a roll, and then
failure to master the late par-fives, cost Sjoland his second win of the year,
he maintained. "Sadly
I couldn't hole short putts on six, seven and eight which just shaved the hole
and the back nine par-fives were the key to losing in the end," said the
Swede. "I
hit bad drives on both the long holes and didn't give myself birdie chances. I
think the two extra shots would have been two much for Sven then, but he did magnificently
to birdie the 18th twice to win." Clarke
birdied four of the last five holes but a double-bogey on the short third denied
him his chance of a play-off, and the 50,000 pounds ($83,320) he earned was not
enough for him to take over on top of Europe's rankings. That
was because England's Lee Westwood closed with a 68 to earn a share of 12th place
and keep Clarke 5,498 pounds ($9,161) short of overtaking him on top of the money-winning
list. Colin
Montgomerie would have been overtaken for third place on the rankings if Sjoland
had prevailed but the Scot kept his spot despite double-bogeying the last for
a second day running to finish 12th with Westwood.
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