Maiden win for Scott Henry

Scotland’s Scott Henry had to wait 50 long minutes on the putting green before he knew he had won the 2011 Gösser Open presented by Martin Wiegele with a total of -17. He fired a 63-9-under-par card to grab a one stroke margin victory. Austrian Roland Steiner signed for 66. For the second year in a row, local fans applauded an Austrian runner up. At third place, a group of 4 players, Swiss Martin Rominger, Northern Ireland’s Richard Kilpatrick and England’s Jamie Abbot and Chris Paisley.

The weather was warm and humid in Styria. It doesn’t bother the big group of British players running for good results. Since the beginning of the Alps Tour season, players from Great Britain are dominating the Alps Tour events. At the middle of the day, no less than 7 of them where in top 10 with a total between -10 and -13.

But the odds were very good for a group run by Alps Tour leader, Chris Paisley. He was -7 as he started the day and his playing partner Scott Henry was -8. They both turn -13 total after 12 holes and were co-leaders without knowing anything about the scores behind them. All spectators were following last group so as Scott Henry holed for eagle on the 14th to take a 2 strokes lead, nobody knew except one journalist and one supporter. Paisley started to miss a couple of putts for birdy and Henry holed 3 meters to reach -16 on 15th hole. They both birdied par 5, 16th after great chip and short putt. After the information run from fairway to leaderboard, a few spectators finally came on the 17th to see the leader. Scott save a great par and did as well on the last hole after missing the fairway far left. The crowd believed until the end that Steiner had a chance to birdy 18th hole but the putt was long and he missed it. Scott Henry took a breath and finally smiled…

“I finished second last week in Slovenia. I really felt I could do better but mu putting was too poor. I putted quite bad during first 2 rounds here but I wanted to do the best I could today. I was playing with Chris Paisley and I really enjoyed our round. He started to holed birdies from every angle and I really though it was going to be tough. I am so happy about this win. I want to thank my parents for helping me because a few weeks ago I could not afford to go on tournaments any more and they helped me.”

Henry made the longest winner speech ever at Gösser Open and did not forget any one from sponsor to volunteers and green keepers. Everyone felt his discreet emotion and celebrate warmly their new champion. Scott Henry is now 3rd at Alps Tour ranking.

At Maria Lankowitz
Agathe Séron