Conor Purcell can be happy with his final round performance at the HotelPlanner Tour’s Le Vaudreuil Golf Challenge in France as the 29-year-old Dubliner fired a three-under-par 69 to climb up the leaderboard and finish T35.
Purcell has been steady all week having only posted a single over par round and even that was just a one-over-par 73 on Thursday. Heading out in the morning round on Sunday, Purcell upped his level and began well with two birdies early on at the first and fourth.
Purcell’s next birdie would come at the par-5 12th before making his only bogey of the day at the 13th. The man from Malahide added one more birdie to his card in fine fashion at the last to finish his weeks work at three-under.
It was a day that could have offered so much for Galway’s Ronan Mullarney but unfortunately for the 30-year-old, that wasn’t the case. Mullarney sat just seven strokes back from the lead heading into the final round.
Mullarney started slow with a bogey at the first before he got back to level-par for the day with a birdie at the seventh. Things began to unravel from here. Mullarney went bogey-double at the eighth and ninth to take the turn at three-over.
Back-to-back bogeys came at the 13th and 14th as Mullarneys chances of a top-20 finish began to dwindle. Mullarney did well to make birdie at the last to post a four-over-par 76 and finish his weekend T50 at even-par.
Liam Nolan got off to a rough start with a hat trick of bogeys on the opening three holes before finishing the front nine well with a pair of birdies at the eighth and ninth. Any chance of a momentum swing from those birdies was quickly nulled by a double bogey at the 10th.
The 26-year-old made a birdie and two bogeys on his way back to the clubhouse to join Mullarney in posting a four-over-par 76 final round. Nolan finished T68 at +4.
Late drama saw many changes at the top of the leaderboard, much to the advantage of France’s Julien Sale who earned his first win on the HotelPlanner Tour. His 12-under-par final score was just enough to get the job done as he won by one stroke.
“It’s amazing. I am the first French golfer to win this tournament so it’s really great to put my name on this trophy,” said Sale.
Sale began the final round in T4 and after making a double bogey at the first, the Frenchman did very well to not let that hinder his spirits as the 28-year-old went on a rampage from then on. Two birdies came at the sixth and ninth to get back to par through nine holes.
Sale’s best work came at the par-5 12th where he holed out from the bunker and made eagle to put him right back on track before adding two more birdies to post a four-under 68 and take the clubhouse lead. Sale’s two-putt birdie at the last proved to be the winning putt.
“I fought back after the first hole, I managed to stick to the gameplan and keep my head down and just play my golf. This win means a lot,” added Sale.
South Africa’s MJ Viljoen had the chance to take it to a playoff as he sat just one stroke back from Sale when teeing up at the 18th. The 31-year-old took the aggressive route which didn’t pay off as he made bogey and finished T3.
Hamish Brown earned second place as the Dane posted a four-under final round to finish at 11-under.
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