First tournament win for the Frenchman Julien De Poyen
Open Casa Green Golf 2018
Five weeks ago he turned professional and now Julien De Poyen can put his first winner’s cup in the trophy display cabinet: with rounds of 66, 69 and 68 strokes and an overall result of 12 under par, the Frenchman secured the Open Casa Green Golf 2018 title in Casablanca, Morocco. After 54 holes, the 23-year old from Guadeloupe lay one stroke ahead of the defending title holder Christopher Carstensen from Hamburg, who finished the tournament with 11 under par (70, 67, 67).
Casablanca/Morocco – Julien de Poyen had missed the cut to start the tour in Egypt twice in a row; in Morocco he has now impressively demonstrated how quickly he has acclimatised to turning professional. At the Open Prestigia last week he shared 28th place, now he has played his way onto the top spot on the winners’ rostrum in a remarkable manner. On the first tournament day in Casablanca he was only thwarted by one bogey with five birdies on the Palmeraie Country Club course, he confidently had the Casa Green Golf Club under control in rounds 2 and 3. “I concentrated on making few mistakes and exploiting my birdie opportunities,” says the professional who grew up in Guadeloupe and recently played college golf in the USA. “I had to get used to the totally different rhythm on the Pro Golf Tour first of all,” says De Poyen, “but I managed that pretty well this week. The courses were in a superb condition and I love the layout. My putter also worked really well.” The tour rookie is planning on playing the whole season on the Pro Golf Tour and he is impressed by his surroundings: “The Pro Golf Tour was recommended to me because it offers lots of tournaments, consistently good courses and excellent organisation – all of this has also been fully confirmed so far.”
On the last hole of the tournament, both the Swissman Benjamin Rusch and the Dutchman Robbie van West still had the chance of forcing a play-off with De Poyen with a birdie. But they were both thwarted by a bogey leaving them sharing 3rd place with the two Germans Nicolai von Dellingshausen and Sean Einhaus, along with the Czech Jan Cafourek. Max Griesbeck from Bocholt, who had led the competition for two days, was caught out by a really disastrous final day. He had to record a triple bogey right at the start of his third round and in the end he dropped right back into 21st place with a round of 75 and 6 under par overall (64, 70, 75).
The Pro Golf Tour is taking a break for two weeks before round 1 of the Open Madaef 2018 is on the programme on 25 February 2018. The battle is then on again for the prize money of 30,000 euro and just as many points for the Pro Golf Tour Order of Merit in El Jadida in Morocco.