Christie knocks down the trophy

And the Oscar goes to…

England’s Alex Christie managed to take the win away from the overnight leader and followers and grab the trophy-statue of Colli Berici. He teed off 3 shots back of Hansen this morning and, step by step, climbed on the top of the leaderboard.

Christie had a quiet start compared to his playing partner Italy’s Nino Bertasio who eagled the first hole. The Englishman played six pars in a row before his putter starts to burn the greens from the 7^th to the 11^th green.

In the last group, Stian Hansen and Alessio Bruschi struggled to recover the momentum of second round. And in the penultimate group, Etchart and McCarroll had ups and downs and did not put pressure on the flying Englishman.

Christie’s main danger was under his eyes as Bertasio sunk a putt for birdie on par 3 16^th and hit a great chip and run on the 17^th to holed another easy birdie.

“I believe I could go into a play-off until the last hole. Alex missed his putt for par after his bunker shot in the 18^th and I still had a birdie putt. But I missed it. I started well and finished well but I was not consistent enough in the middle and Alex was fantastic.”

Jennie was following her boy friend for the first time in three years on the Alps Tour but she did in England. She observed that Alex’ body language proved that he was very calm and in her opinion he improved very much this part of his game.

“I worked a lot on my behaviour and especially on this golf course with the wind, you have to stay calm and committed. I won on a golf course like this in Portugal, very hilly. I am good with my brain, thinking where to put the ball and not to leave it the wrong side of the flag. And obviously , I played very well today.”

“This victory in Portugal was a few weeks ago, I had a four event swing, two rounds. I had 12 under to win by two. A win is a win and it gave me confidence.”

Christie’s goal is to build on this title and try to finish in the top 5 at the end of the year and to avoid the Stage one on the European Tour Qualifying school.

The UK players showered their friend with local champagne and the winner dedicated his win to Jane before the blue eye couple went on vacation in Venice to celebrate.

From Vicenza
Agathe Séron