Brilliant Ondrej Leiser triumphs
Polish Open 2019 by John Deere
What a brilliant performance, what a superior victory: the Czech Ondrej Lieser secured the title of the Polish Open 2019 by John Deere with a total of 19 under par and seven strokes ahead of the Frenchman Félix Mory (-12). After rounds of 61, 66 and 64 strokes, the 27-year-old celebrates his second tournament success on the Pro Golf Tour at the picturesque Gradi Golf Club in Prusice, Poland and settles an old score: he had lost the tournament at the tenth extra hole of the play-off against the Frenchman Mathieu Decottignies Lafon in 2018. Swiss Benjamin Rusch and the two Germans Florian Fritsch and Cedric Otten, an amateur player from Neuss, shared 3rd place with 11 under par each.
Prusice/Poland – The story of this outstanding tournament victory with 19 under par and a seven stroke lead basically begins on 27 June 2018. On this day Ondrej Lieser and Mathieu Decottignies Lafon played a memorable play-off on the Gradi Golf Club’s par 70 course, a record play-off that ended better for the Frenchman. After three rounds, both had shared first place with 18 under par, and only on the tenth attempt of the man-on-man duel did Decottignies Lafon manage to win the tournament with a birdie.
Ondrej Lieser made the firm commitment that nothing like that should ever happen to him again. And the man from Branžež in the Czech Republic made this clear from day one. He started the tournament with birdies on holes 10, 11 and 12, and at the end of his first round he had made eight birdies and one eagle with just one bogey. "My putter was really on fire," says Lieser after the 61 strokes with which he catapulted his name to the top of the leader board. "I simply holed everything today, it was really fantastic."
The Gradi Golf Club’s well-kept course presented its best side, with true greens and fair rough. With temperatures just under 40 degrees Celsius in the shade, the participants turned up for the second round, which Ondrej Lieser found "much more difficult than the first round". "It was very windy and much more demanding than the day before." But when he signed his scorecard with 66 strokes, thus producing out a lead of six strokes over Munich's Florian Fritsch, he was "pretty sure that I could bring it home".
37 under par in three rounds
In the end, he managed this on the final day with another strong round. He recorded 64 strokes, confidently winning his second perfect victory on the Pro Golf Tour; he had won the Zell am See-Kaprun Open presented by Salzburger Land in 2018. Lieser: "I have now played six rounds here with a total 37 under par on this great golf course. I suppose it's fair to say that it suits my game."
This should make it clear that the Czech will also be one of the top favourites next week: round 1 of the Leipzig Golf Open 2019 is scheduled on Monday, 1 July. Ondrej Lieser was third there in 2018, just one stroke behind the top riders. So he still has a score to settle on this course too.