Fitzpatrick scales heights in Swiss Alps with dramatic play-off win over nearly-man Hend

Colin Montgomerie made all the putts he needed yesterday on Narita Golf Club’s massive greens to win the Japan Airlines Championship – the first PGA Tour Champions event in Japan.

The 54-year-old Scot twoputted for par from 50 feet on the par-4 18th, hitting his first to one-and-a-half feet, for a 5-under 67 and a one-stroke victory over Billy Mayfair and second-round leader Scott Mccarron.

“The greens were as good as any, and I mean this, as good as any as we have ever putted on, ever,” Montgomerie said. “And we’ve putted on some great, great surfaces. In the 30 years as a pro, these are as good as any we have putted on as a putting surface. Superb putting surfaces.

“And the way the course was manicured was exceptional.”

Montgomerie finished at 14-under 202 for his fifth victory on the 50-and-over tour and first in nearly a year. He won 31 times on the European Tour and topped the tour’s money list a record eight times – seven in a row from 1993-99 and the last in 2005.

“It’s a big deal, a very big deal,” Montgomerie said about the tour’s first visit to Japan. “And let’s hope that the success of this event goes forward and not only allows the PGA Tour Champions to come back and compete but also allows the PGA Tour to come and play here. It will be fantastic if that time ever comes.”

Montgomerie ran in a 60-footer on the par-4 13th in the middle of a three-hole birdie spree, and made two key six-foot putts – the first for par on the par-3 16th and the second for birdie on the par-5 17th to break a tie for the lead with Mayfair.

“I think when I holed the putt on the 14th hole for my third birdie in a row, I felt that I had a chance then,” said Montgomerie.

“I’m a big scoreboard watcher and knew I was leading. I just had to make sure I birdied 17 and par in, which I did.”

Mayfair, playing two groups ahead of Montgomerie, settled for a 66 after missing a six-foot birdie attempt on 18.

Mccarron, pictured below, who had won three of the previous six events, birdied the final two holes for a 71. He opened with a double bogey.

Montgomerie birdied four of the first five holes on the back nine – also holing putts of 20 feet on the tenth, 15 feet on the 12th, and 14 feet on the 14th – after playing the first nine in even par with a bogey and a birdie. “It wasn’t easy,” Montgomerie said. “The wind was swirling in the trees, the pins were located in some very difficult positions, very difficult, right on the edges of the greens on slopes.”

Sidelined for two-and-a-half months in the spring by torn ligaments in his left ankle, Montgomerie won for the first time since beating Mccarron late last September in a playoff in Canada in the Pacific Links Bear Mountain Championship – a title he will try to defend this coming week in Victoria, British Columbia.

The Hall of Famer’s first three Champions victories came in majors – the 2014 and 2015 Senior PGA Championship and 2014 US Senior Open.

“I’m just beginning to play the way that I have the last three years,” Montgomerie said. Matthew Fitzpatrick beat Scott Hend in a dramatic playoff to win the Omega European Masters in Switzerland.

The Englishman entered the final round four shots behind Australian Hend but produced a closing 64 to get to 14 under par and take the contest to extra holes in the Swiss Alps. Hend – who lost to Alex Noren in a playoff at this event last season – missed a six-foot putt for victory on the second extra hole but found sand off the tee on the next trip up the 18th and after he flew the green with his second, a par was enough to seal victory for Fitzpatrick, pictured.

“I’m delighted,” said Fitzpatrick. “It’s one that I’ve always wanted to win. I love playing this golf course, from the first ever year I came as an invite in 2014 it’s one that has really stood out on my schedule and I always want to come back and play.” Fitzpatrick made four birdies and a bogey in his first eight holes to catch up to Hend and when he added further gains on the tenth, 14th, 15th and 16th, the Ryder Cup star held a twoshot lead.

Hend then hit back with a birdie on the 15th and a Fitzpatrick bogey on the 17th set up the dramatic finish.

England’s Tyrrell Hatton birdied four of his last six holes to finish at 11 under alongside Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti, with another Englishman in Lee Slattery two shots further back.

Scot Duncan Stewart was then at eight under, with former world No 1 Lee Westwood finishing at level par in his 500th European Tour event.