Back-to-back win for Marco Crespi

Italian Marco Crespi holed for birdy on the last green to win the Floryck van Donck Trophy at Royal Latem. The battle between England’s Chris Paisley and Italian player from Monza was thrilling during last 6 holes and Crespi played his best golf and putting to stop Paisley on the road to his third win. Crespi earned one place at third on the Alps Tour ranking and Chris Paisley took back his first place. GALLERY

Chris Paisley is known to be a dreadful player and opponent. His reputation on Alps Tour is great and most of his fellows would describe his game as solid, his short game very precise and his putting accurate. Marco Crespi, 32 year old, is as well a talented player and has just won Le Fonti Open, his fourth title, end of July in Bologna, Italy.

Paisley started with one stroke advantage in the morning and turned first nine with 2 more. Crespi made one mistake on the 3^rd, the only one of the day and missed a short putt to drop one shot. “Ite Missa est” that’s what spectators thought at this moment. Englishman had 3 strokes advantage but this break was not enough to stop Crespi. The Italian machine accelerated on the 10^th to come closer to English device. He came to 2 strokes back. On 13^th, both players drove nicely but Crespi was the best to the green. His shot landed at 40 cm of the pin. Meanwhile, Paisley had 3 meters. The margin was then only one shot. Marco Crespi came back square on 15^th green. He had 4 meters to hole and his ball rolled slowly and maintained suspense and finally felt in the hole under crowd applauses. Chris Paisley was still playing well but did not succeeded in coming back. Both players were -17 teeing of the last hole.

Again, two perfects tee shots and two balls on the green. Paisley was 3 meters short of the pin and put first. Everyone was breathless while Englishman was putting… Unfortunately he missed his put and finished the hole greeted with wild applauses. Marco Crespi had more than 2 meters and holed it for back-to-back win. His joy and relief were great to see. Both men congratulated each other and first notes of Italian national anthem came from walkie-talkie…

As Marco Crespi said: “It was great. I played very well today and I just tried to stay closed to Chris. I was waiting for a mistake but he doesn’t often make some ! I putted very well and I put pressure on him as I holed some birdies where he couldn’t. But I was very nervous for the last one to win. It was a great battle”

From Sint Martens- Latem
Agathe Séron