Liam Nolan feels the winter work he put in on his game ahead of his first full season as a professional has been validated after a thrilling final day charge came up just short at the SDC Open.
Teeing off eight shots behind Altin van der Merwe at the opening event on the HotelPlanner Tour (formerly Challenge Tour), Nolan carded a superb round of 67 to finish in solo 3rd on fifteen-under and one shot outside of a playoff which was won by Daniel Van Tonder at Zebula Golf Estate.
Playing on an invite, the Galway man who has full Alps Tour status but a very weak A3 category on the HotelPlanner Tour, almost took full advantage.
Needing a quick start to eat up the ground on the lead, Nolan did just that with three birdies on his front nine to whittle the gap down to five before a birdie on the 12th moved him into 2nd place on his own and just four shots behind Van Der Merwe.
A bogey on 13 looked to have ended his chances but they were revived with a superb eagle on the par-5 15th as he closed to within two shots as Van Der Merwe began to wobble. Unfortunately he couldn’t find the closing birdie on the par-5 18th to force his way into a playoff with Van der Merwe and Van Tonder, but he was still very proud of how he performed under the pressure of trying to win.
“Very, very pleased with it. I knew the main goal today was to hit the fairways and today was my best driving day of the week by a long way,” explained Nolan who pocketed just north of €25,000. “I put myself in really good positions and then executed pretty much every shot how I wanted to coming in.
“Made a few big putts, big putt for eagle and a big save on 16 that just kept me in the hunt and I am really proud of how I performed.
“It’s everything, that’s why you come to tournaments because you want to win. I am very happy with my performance this week.”
Nolan will probably rue a couple of bogeys on the back nine on Saturday after he got off to a lightning quick start but he was very proud with how he kept pushing on the final day and tried to manufacture a realistic opportunity to win the tournament.
“I nearly had myself just a little bit outside a good chance when I was 13-under then when that dropped I felt I was back in it and back in the race so it was lovely to see that one drop.”
Nolan is back in action next week on the HotelPlanner Tour and more starts could come his way if he continues to impress at this level and the former NUIG student is thrilled to see some of the hard work he put in during the winter come to fruition early in the season.
“It’s amazing it verifies a lot of what I was working on over the winter both technically and mentally it has paid off with a really good performance so looking forward to seeing what the rest of the year holds especially with the trips here in South Africa.”
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