Brendan Lawlor’s defence of the G4D Open at Woburn came up agonisingly short after a great battle with world number one Kipp Popert.
Lawlor led by the minimum heading into the final round but he came out on the wrong side of another duel with the Englishman, finishing in second place one shot behind on two-over after a closing 76.
“Yeah, this is a one tough to take. I went two ahead early on and I just kept hitting ropey shots, just not usually what I do. Went three behind on 14, and I said, right, it’s time to fight now.
“Wanted to defend, wanted to try and win it. I bogeyed 14 and I birdied 15 and 16 to get back to level par, and unfortunately duffed my 9 on 17 and made bogey, and I had to birdie 18. Hit a really good putt on 18 from 30 feet. Didn’t go in but Kipp done the business today.”
Lawlor made two birdies in his first four holes, but they were undone by double bogeys on both par-3s 2 and 7.
The Louth man bogeyed 9, 12 and 13 to fall three back of Popert but a late spurt of back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16 was thwarted by a bogey on 17, when he had mud in his eye and he was unable to find the closing birdie.
“I wish someone would just take my eye out. It affected the putt I’d say on 17, but 18 it was fine. I kind of forgot about it quick. Just get on with things. It’s not the mud in my eye that made me lose the tournament. Yeah, on to the next one.
“I had two doubles today on par-3s, which is — I don’t know if I had another double on a par-3, but that’s inexcusable. It’s not good enough. I can go back and reflect on my week, there’s so many shots out there where I could say, right, it was that one, it was that one. It’s a game of fine margins. I’m sure Kipp will come out and play he didn’t play his best, either. We probably dragged each other down and get into a match play situation. That’s golf.”
Lawlor has been on the wrong side of some tight battles with Popert over the last couple of seasons but got one over on him at Woburn last year to win the inaugural G4D Open and he would have dearly loved to defend his title.
“I wouldn’t say I’m happy. I’ll go home and reflect and see what went wrong and come back next year and try and get it back.
“He’s a very good player. I’m not bad myself. But he’s just getting the pip on me at the minute. We’ll go again.”
Carton House man Conor Stone finished in a share of 19th place.
Scoring HERE
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