The Punter

The Punter's De-brief: Late birdie barrage sees brilliant Bradbury claim the spoils

Golfer Dan Bradbury
A happy Dan Bradbury after his Open de France victory in Paris

Dan Bradbury has won the Open de France and Matt McCarty is off the mark on the PGA Tour, and Golf expert Steve Rawlings is here to look back on their victories...

  • Magical McCarthy calmly converts in Utah

  • Read my Andalucia Masters preview here

  • Read my Shriners Children's Open preview here


Pre-event 80.079/1 chance, Jesper Svensson, was matched at as low as 2.265/4 to win the Open de France during round three on Saturday afternoon but he failed to birdie the par five 14th and he played the last four holes in one-over-par.

He still ended the day leading by a stroke but an ugly missed par putt at the opening hole in round four on Sunday set the tone for the day., and he eventually ended the week in a tie for 27th following a five-under-par 76.

Playing alongside Svensson and Sheffield's Sam Bairstow in the final three-ball, Thorbjorn Olesen birdied the first to take the lead and he looked the most likely winner early on but when he made a mess of the par five ninth to record a bogey six, we had an 11-man tie at the top!

It really was one of the most open events I've ever seen on the DP World Tour and with the leaderboard changing continuously, it was impossible to call the winner.

Olesen was matched at a low of 2.3811/8, Bairstow hit 2.166/5, having been matched at 1000.0999/1 earlier in the week, and Denmark's Jeff Winter's price dipped to 3.613/5. Only one man though, the eventual winner and pre-event 150.0149/1 chance, Dan Bradbury, went odds-on...but only after he'd been matched at 38.037/1 with just a handful of holes to play!

Having started the final round trailing by two in a tie for fourth and trading at 16.015/1, the 25-year-old Englishman began the final round with a tap in birdie at the first, but after playing his next 12 holes in just one-under-par, he was starting to look like an also ran.

A birdie at the par five 14th kept him in the race but the huge turning point came at the par four 15th when he made birdie after somehow avoiding the water off the tee, and again with his approach shot.

Bradbury followed the birdie at 15 with another at the par three 16th to edge ahead of the rest and with the last two holes playing so tough, he went odds-on after a great drive at the 17th.

He made a brilliant par at the penultimate hole after his approach finished short of the green and after flirting with the water off the tee again on the 18th hole, he played a safe approach before two-putting for par to post 16-under to edge out Winther and Germany's Yannik Paul in the clubhouse on -15.

Olesen and Bairstow would have drawn alongside Bradbury if they could somehow fashion a three at 18 and to their credit, they both hit nice drives, but it was always a tall order given James Morrison and David Micheluzzi had been the only two of the previous 68 players to play the hole that had managed to achieve the feat.

Sat in the clubhouse, Bradbury was trading at 1.251/4 as the final group played 18 and I've never been so tempted to pile into a long odds-on chance.

As expected, they both failed to make threes, and Bradbury was the man left holding the trophy when the music stopped.


Magical McCarthy calmly converts in Utah

Over on the PGA Tour, pre-event 55.054/1 chance, Matt McCarty, who was playing in just his third PGA Tour event, having missed the cut at the 2022 US Open and having finished 63rd at the Sanderson Farms Championship the week before, led the inaugural edition of the Black Desert Championship by two with a round to go.

Trading at around 2.77/4, he didn't look generously priced given four men were tied for second, but it didn't take him long to settle his nerves.

McCarty had been promoted to the PGA Tour after three wins in six weeks on the Korn Ferry Tour over the summer and he went odds-on to get off the mark on the PGA Tour after a birdie at the first hole on Sunday.

Trailing by two in a tie for second with a round to go, Stephan Jaegar, who had led at halfway, had looked the most likely man to trouble McCarty but he parred his first six holes. It was then the veteran, Kevin Streelman, that emerged as the big challenger when he finished the front nine with and eagle at seven and a birdie at nine but having been matched at a low of 3.613/5, Streelman double-bogeyed the 10th.

McCarty was matched at 1.222/9 as he played the par five ninth but after adopting to lay up instead of going for the green, he made par at nine and 10 before a poor first putt led to a bogey at the 11th.

After his slow start, Jaegar got to within a stroke of the lead with birdies at 13 and 14 but just when it looked like we might get an interesting finish, McCarty responded in style with this incredible tee-shot at the par four 14th.

The 26-year-old rolled in the eagle putt from three-and-half feet to increase his lead to three and the result was never really in doubt after that.

McCarty went on to win by three over Jaegar, with Streelman and Lucas Glover a further shot behind in a tie for third.


Black Desert Resort Reflections

As this was the first edition of the Black Desert Championship, it's worth looking back at the week to see how the Black Desert Resort course played.

As expected, with the fairways so wide and the greens generously sized, the field had little problem in finding fairways and greens (see Justin Ray's tweet below after Friday's second round).

I thought length would be a big advantage but that wasn't really the case, and we saw a number of veterans contend.

I also thought it would develop into a birdie-fest and a bit of a putting competition and that's basically what happened.

With a round to go, the top-eight in the Putting Average stats for the week were all inside the top-ten and the winner finished the week ranking seventh for Strokes Gained: Putting, with the top-seven on the final leaderboard ranking seventh, 18th, first, 60th, fifth, 11th and ninth.

Lucas Glover putted well on the front nine on Sunday, but he was the one to rank as lowly as 60th and it was his elite tee-to-green game that kept him in the hunt. He ranked first for Greens In Regulation and Strokes Gained: Approach to Green.

I also expected it to be hard to make up ground here. Low scoring events very often make it tough on the chasers, with everyone holing putts, and McCarty was inside the top-five places all week, but we can't ignore Lucas Glover and Matti Schmid's nine-under-par 62s on Sunday which saw then end the week in tied third and fifth.

It had been a largely benign week, but the wind picked up on Sunday afternoon and having started the day seven strokes behind McCarty in a tie for 28th, Glover was matched at a low of 13.5 as he sat in the clubhouse. Schmid had begun the final day eight off the lead in a tie for 36th.

We need to keep an eye on the weather forecasts as it can differ greatly throughout the day and Glover and Schmid have demonstrated perfectly that a move from off the pace can be made before the wind picks up.

Although he didn't have any official form there, it's very hard to imagine that McCarty isn't extremely familiar with another Weiskopf designed desert track - TPC Scottsdale - given he was born in Scottsdale and that he still lives there, and that's a course to consider when looking for correlating form.


Now read my Shriners Children's Open preview here


*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter


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