John Huggan / guardian.co.uk
Ross Fisher completed one of English golf’s finer days on the links today, the rising star following up Ian Poulter’s one-shot victory at the Singapore Open by beating the American Anthony Kim 4&3 in the final of the World Match Play Championship in Spain.
Fisher, who is €750,000 (£671,000) richer after negotiating 126 hilly holes at the mountainous Finca Cortesin layout over four gruelling days, moves into fourth place on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai and has already gone a long way towards assuring himself of a Ryder Cup debut at Celtic Manor next October.
Playing the sort of relentless “fairways and greens” golf that tends to succeed in head-to-head contests – only once did Fisher drop a shot to par – the 28-year-old from Wentworth, the long-time home of this event, eventually wore down his younger opponent. All square at lunch having never been down, Fisher was soon three up. A birdie at the par-five third, an eagle at the 334-yard fourth, where both players found the putting surface with their tee-shots, and another birdie-four at the long fifth all proved too good for Kim.
The most crucial three-hole period of the match, however, had yet to come. Still two up playing the 494-yard seventh, Fisher bunkered his approach with his opponent already aboard the putting surface in regulation. Then, in what was something of a comedy of errors, Kim three-putted and Fisher, after splashing out to no more than three feet, almost did likewise.
One hole later, Kim missed from inside two feet when holing out would have reduced the deficit. Then, with his opponent all but sure of a birdie at the 352-yard ninth, Fisher holed from all of 30 feet to maintain his two-hole advantage.
Having survived unscathed that brief excursion into mild farce, Fisher took the short 10th with a par and five holes later closed out the match, in the process making himself the fourth Englishman to lift one of European golf’s most prestigious titles. Nick Faldo (1989 and 1992) was first, followed by Lee Westwood (2000) and Paul Casey (2006).
“This is a massive confidence boost for me,” said the new champion, who displayed a promising propensity for head-to-head contests when he made it to the semi-final of the World Golf Championship Accenture Match Play in February.
“I felt like I played well and did a good job of putting the pressure on him,” added Fisher. “I was relieved to get to three up though. At that point I knew I just had to finish the job off.
“I could have won every major this year if things had gone my way – I led all four at some point – so I’ve been very consistent without winning. But this is a big step up for me. Anything with the word ‘world’ in the title has to mean a great deal.”
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