Congratulations to HSPSE pupil Thomas Björn who held his nerve in a five man play-off to win the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles. It's the 2nd victory this season for the Danish stalwart, after his win in Qatar.
The 40 year old carded a final round three under par 69 for a 11 under par total to join Mark Foster, George Coetzee, Bernd Wiesberger and Pablo Larrazábal in the five hole play-off.
In sudden-death, Wiesberger and Larrazábal, with a bogey six, dropped out at the first two holes and, after the final trio all made four on the third, Foster dropped out on the next after shooting a bogey six.
Björn, fourth in the 140th Open Championship last month, holed from three feet away, but Coetzee made a 12 footer to take it into a fifth hole where the Dane sealed victory with a birdie.
"I didn't really see that coming after my two weeks in America. But I played nicely this week. I played fantastic on Thursday and I played great today," Björn said. "The way I played the last three playoff holes, I can't be more proud of what I did."
Bjorn works with putting coach Phil Kenyon who was at hand earlier in the week at Gleneagles to run his eye over Bjorns preparations. "Thomas was looking good in practice. I was out in the US with him for the PGA and although he missed the cut, while out there i felt his putting stroke was really coming on. As soon as he got his eye back in with his full swing I knew he would have a good week. I guess it came around sooner than i thought".
Thomas Bjorn with Phil Kenyon in a recent visit to the putting studio