Gavin sinks an eagle, hope soars for an Olympic spot

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s Gavin Kyle Green moved a step nearer to the Olympics after a creditable 12th place finish in the Japan Golf Tour’s ISPS Handa Global Cup.
The 22-year-old eagled the 16th hole en route to a final round of five-under 66 for an 11-under 273 at the Tokinodai Country Club in Ishikawa Prefecture on Sunday.
Gavin started with identical 67s in the first two rounds but stumbled to a two-over 73 on Saturday.
Gavin, who was competing on a sponsor’s invite, pocketed ¥2.4mil (RM81,700) from the ¥100mil (RM3.98mil) event. Most importantly, he is set to improve on his Olympic ranking spot of 59th as the Japan Golf Tour carries more ranking points than Asian Tour events. The Olympic qualifying ends on July 11 with the top 60 competing in Rio de Janeiro from Aug 5-21.

South Koream Park Jun-won, the world No. 432, claimed his first Japan Golf Tour title after beating Argentinian Emiliano Grillo in a playoff. Both ended with a 17-under-267.
Jun-won emerged champion after he birdied the first playoff hole while world No. 47 Grillo could only manage a par.
South African Charl Schwartzel, the 2011 US Masters champion, finished joint fifth on 13-under 271 after a 69 while two-time British Open winner Padraig Harrington of Ireland also shot a 69 to finish joint ninth on 272.
Malaysian No. 1 Danny Chia also took part but he missed the cut after a two-day total of four-over 146.
Danny is ranked 47th in the Olympic rankings and should earn a place at the Rio Games.


RESULTS
Leading final round scores
267: Park Jun-won (Kor) 66-67-68-66, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 65-67-67-68;
269: Brad Kennedy (Aus) 68-69-65-67, Thanyakon Khrongpha (Tha) 66-67-67-69;
271: Michael Hendry (Nzl) 68-66-72-65, Hiratsuka Tetsuji (Jpn) 69-66-70-66, Curtis Luck (Aus) 70-68-69-64,
Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 68-67-67-69;
272: Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 68-68-66-70, Padraig Harrington (Irl) 66-69-68-69, Park Sang-hyun (Kor) 63-69-69-71; 273: Gavin Kyle Green (Mas) 67-67-73-66, Shingo Katayama (Jpn) 72-66-69-66, Katsumasa Miyamoto (Jpn) 66-69-68-70, Naomi Ohta (Jpn) 72-63-67-71, Atomu Shigenaga (Jpn) 71-66-70-66.