Second season win for Mathieu Decottignies Lafon
Wolf Open 2021
Play-off decision at the Wolf Open 2021: On the first extra hole of the play-off, Frenchman Mathieu Decottignies Lafon wrapped up his second victory of the 2021 season; with a birdie on hole 18, a 423-metre par 4, the man from Biarritz prevailed over his compatriots Victor Veyret and Henry Simpson as well as Dutchman Philip Bootsma. The 5000 points associated with the victory also make Decottignies Lafon the new number 1 in the Order of Merit.
Rudelzhausen/Germany - It looked early on as if a Frenchman would win the Wolf Open, a new tournament of the Pro Golf Tour, which is supported by the air conditioning expert Wolf GmbH from Mainburg as title sponsor - but first, not Mathieu Decottignies Lafon looked like the possible winner. His compatriot Henry Simpson went to the 17th tee of the Holledau golf course in Germany with 12 under par and a three stroke lead. But then the 24-year-old's nerves got the better of him and, with his first Pro Golf Tour victory in sight, Simpson finished his round with double bogey and bogey, inviting compatriots Victor Veyret and Mathieu Decottignies Lafon as well as Dutchman Philip Bootsma into a four men play-off, all of them 9 under par after 54 holes. Decottignies Lafon seized the moment, hitting his 2-iron perfectly from the tee and holing his birdie putt from five metres for the win a few minutes later.
Triumph on the first extra-hole
"I knew that I had a good chance of winning the title if I reached the play-off," said Decottignies Lafon, for whom the triumph on the well-maintained and very varied course of the Holledau Golf Course is of great importance in two ways: On the one hand, he now wants to try to win again as quickly as possible in order to then advance directly to the European Challenge Tour with three victories this year; in May, he had already won the NewGiza Pyramids Challenge in Egypt. On the other hand, the new number 1 of the Pro Golf Tour Order of Merit will now tackle the Korn Ferry Tour adventure in parallel: "I have resolved to play the Qualifying School of the Korn Ferry Tour if I have won twice on the Pro Golf Tour until then. That's what I'm doing now."
Before Mathieu Decottignies Lafon boards the plane overseas, the Pro Golf Tour will continue with a Bavarian classic next week: From 16 to 18 August, the Starnberg Open 2021 is on the tour calendar, where players can expect greens that are as faithful as they are lightning fast, and where 30,000 euros in prize money and the same amount of ranking list points are at stake.
