Maiden win for Barnes at Acaya Open

Jason Barnes won for the first time after only one year as professional. He had all Alps Tour great players on the race beside him but succeeded in maintaining his level of game to win by one over fellow Matthew Cryer with -8 total.

Italian Matteo Delpodio and England’s Jason Barnes teed off square. During the first nine holes, none of them seemed to take the advantage. Both did great shots and both missed easy ones. Barnes was really in trouble on 5th and save good bogey. Delpodio was quite far from the pin and holed. Then, Italian holed 2 birdies in row on 7th and 8th. He was -6 and Italian fans wanted to believe than it would be enough to lift a third trophy this year. But as Delpodio said yesterday, he has to improve his bad shots and the one he had on the 9th cost him a lot… He missed the green with 5 iron to the pin and can not save par. Meanwhile, Frenchman Julien Forêt signed for the score of the day, 64 -7 and jumped to 5th place.

After back nine Italian Delpodio was leading by one at -5 over Jason Barnes, Gavin Dear and Matthew Cryer. But Italian game became more and more fragile as Barnes’one got stronger. Delpodio dropped two shots on 11th, save a incredible par on 12th but his opponent did much more better. Englishman holed a great putt for birdy on 12th and confessed he was to turn of the match.

“I knew I had a chance to win as I teed off this morning. But the real turn was on the 12th hole. At the beginning of the round I was nervous but after that putt holed I felt more relax and I played solid. I holed two more birdies on 13th and 14th and it was good until the end. I am very happy and I want to thank my sponsor so much for supporting me. I hope JSM Construction are happy too…”

Barnes holed the 17th too as everyday. One group ahead, fellow Matthew Cryer was trying to stay in touch. He could see his fellow score on leaderboard and could only realize that despite his birdies he was always one stroke behind. He signed for a wonderful 65 to finished second.

The Top 5 players of the Alps Tour order of merit are the same. Matthew Cryer exchanged his 5th place with Gavin Dear’s fourth.

At Acaya
Agathe Séron