Manic Monday

Turkish Open, the Montgomerie Maxx Royal, Antalya, Turkey

England’s Tyrrell Hatton won the Turkish Open in thrilling fashion after prevailing in a six-man play-off which ran to four holes and finished under floodlights at the the Montgomerie Maxx Royal course. The last two standing were Hatton and Matthias Schwab of Austria and when the Austrian missed a short putt at the fourth extra hole Hatton took the title and a cool $2 million dollar pay day.

It's too dark, let's do rock, paper, scissors!

Hatton, Schwab, Victor Perez, Erik Van Rooyen, Benjamin Hebert and Kurt Kitayama all finished on 20-under par in regulation play and so commenced a record equalling six-man play-off. As darkness fell, it took four goes at the par five 18^th hole to separate the players.

Hatton looked like he was on his way out of the play-off at the first extra hole but a brilliant chip in for a birdie kept him in the race. Schwab and Kitayama also birdied but Perez and Hebert could only make par and van Rooyen a bogey and so it was down to three.

The trio all parred the hole at the second attempt but when Kitayama could only par the third extra hole, and Schwab holed a great putt to match Hatton’s birdie, it was down to a two man shoot out.

Sadly, for the Austrian, there was to be no maiden victory as he missed a short par putt on the fourth extra hole which handed the spoils to Hatton.

"It's hard to put into words," Hatton said. "It's just been a crazy day. Obviously, the playoff was mental, and I'm just so happy to win again." Said Hatton after taking the title.

The win moved Hatton up to sixth in Race to Dubai, as well as moving him inside the world top fifty and earning him an invite to the Masters next April.

The European Tour now moves to South Africa for the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City. This will be the final event before the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, with only the top fifty in the rankings qualifying.

The top five in the Race to Dubai standings remains unchanged after Bernd Wiesberger and Shane Lowry finished well down the field in Turkey and Jon Rahm, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rory McIlroy all decided to miss the event.

For the final leaderboard click HERE

Toto Japan Classic, Seta Course, Shiga, Japan

Overnight leader Ai Suzuki shot a bogey-free five-under 67 on Sunday to win the Japan Classic by three strokes for her first LPGA career victory. Suzuki birdied the final hole at the Seta Golf Course to finish on seventeen-under, three shots clear of Hyo Joo Kim of South Korea. Min-Jee-Lee of Australia was alone in third on eleven under with Jin Yan of China and America’s Jennifer Kupcho sharing fourth, one shot further back.

Mine, all mine!

Suzuki, a regular on the JLPGA, now becomes eligible for LPGA Tour membership. Speaking through a translator after the victory she said “This one is special because it's a US LPGA tour event. It's beyond Japan, an International event."

This was the final event of the LPGA Tour's Asia Swing and is the second year running a Japanese player has taken the spoils, Nasa Hataoka took the title in 2018.

Best of the British was Mel Reid who closed with a 70  for a share of twentieth place. Fellow Englishwoman Bronte Law shot a 69 for a level par total and joint forty-fifth place.

Lexi Thompson, making her first start since the Indy Women in Tech Championship in September, tied for twenty-fourth place after a closing 71.

For the final leaderboard click HERE

Ladies European Tour
There was no event this week. The ladies are still waiting for the next event which is the Andalucia Costa del Sol Open de Espana on 28th November. We cointinue to think that they are being let down by their tour.