Robert Brazill signed off his week with a one-over 72, his lowest of the three rounds, to finish tied for fourth place overall and tied for first in the amateur category at the Toro Tour’s La Canada event.
Back-to-back rounds of 73 saw the Naas man go into the final round in a tie for fifth at the fourth event on the year on the Andalucía-based winter tour. Scoring had proved tough on days one and two, with just three players in red figures after 36 holes, and it was a similar story in Wednesday’s final round, when just two of the remaining 34 players broke par.
Brazill birdied three of the opening nine holes to make the turn at -2 for the day, but the back nine has proven to be the tougher of the two, and three bogeys saw him fall back to +1 on the day, finishing +5 overall and tied with Holland’s Tom Van Balen for low amateur, four shots clear of their nearest challengers in that category.
Karl McCormack’s two-over saw him finish solo seventh at seven-over, whilst Cork’s John Hickey, who’d been leading Irishman going into the final day, had a round to forget, carding four double-bogeys on the back nine to slip to a tie for 12th.
James Temple and Rory Gallagher respectively finished seventh and ninth overall in the amateur category, completing the Irish lineup.
But nobody could touch local man Mario Galiano, who broke par for the third successive round, the only man in the field to even come close to doing so, signing off with a one-under 70, which added to his 68 and 69 in previous rounds, saw him finish at -6, five clear of France’s Paul Margolis on -1.
German Hannes Ruhnau finished solo third, two clear of Brazill, Van Balen and Canadian professional Jacob Lehman.
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