ENGLAND'S Barry Lane and miracle man Seve Ballesteros gave Europe's
Ryder Cup hopes the best possible lift yesterday high up in the Swiss
Alps.
Lane, three weeks away from his cup debut, holed a 30-foot birdie putt
on the penultimate green and won the #102,000 first prize in the Canon
European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre.
Ballesteros, in his best performance since March last year, finished
only a stroke behind along with fellow Spaniard, Miguel Jimenez -- after
having pulled out a last-hole birdie which will be recalled for ever
more by those who saw it.
His breathtaking 3 at the 377-yard eighteenth came after he had
birdied the sixteenth and seventeenth and set up a dramatic climax. He
carved his drive off the final tee horribly and the ball came to rest
six feet from a seven-foot high swimming pool wall. The wall was between
him and the green, 130 yards away, and there seemed no option but to
chop back out on to the fairway.
Caddie Billy Foster told Ballesteros as much, but the three times Open
Champion had other ideas. ''I like to keep going forwards,'' he said
afterwards. ''When you try something, you either make it or you don't. I
needed a 3 to have a chance of winning.''
He crouched down and decided he just had enough room to hit over the
wall. ''Looking back, I know it was risky. A few years ago I tried the
same in the US PGA, hit the wall, and nearly killed myself.''
This time, though, he executed the shot perfectly. The ball soared
through the air, landed just short of the green, and, from 18 yards,
this incomparable golfer chipped in.
The roar was so loud that Lane heard it on the green at the par 5
fifteenth and assumed that Ballesteros had holed his second shot for an
eagle. The scoreboard told him it was only a birdie and, when Lane took
two putts for a birdie of his own, he was back in front.
Lane, feeling more nervous than he could ever remember, took three
putts at the sixteenth, and when he drove into rough on the next,
Ballesteros's hopes of a first win for 17 months were still alive. But
the 33-year-old Berkshire player then rammed in the long putt to go back
in front.
Jimenez was now the main danger but, after Lane had just missed from
20 feet on the last, the Malaga golfer, who had begun the day two ahead,
pulled his seven-foot attempt wide as he tried to force a play-off.
Lane won with an 18-under-par total of 270. Ballesteros returned a
best-of-the-day 66, and Jimenez a 73. A stroke further behind in fourth
place was Swede Per-Ulrik Johansson.
Lane, whose last victory was in the German Masters last October, said:
''It feels magnificent to win again so close to the cup place. I didn't
putt well, but that one on the seventeenth made up for the misses.''
Ballesteros added: ''I make more miracle shots than anybody else
because I try harder than anybody else and take more risks.''
* LEADING places in the Volvo European Tour Order of Merit after the
Canon European Masters (British or Irish unless stated):
1, N Faldo #393,703; 2, B Langer (Germany) #365,494.64; 3, P Baker
#345,989.17; 4, C Montgomerie #345,022; 5, C Rocca (Italy) #337,083.98;
6, S Torrance #296,721.52; 7, I Woosnam #289,005.41; 8, M James
#278,397.67; 9, J Haeggman (Sweden) #264,715.84; 10, B Lane #262,941.80;
11, R Rafferty #227,744.32; 12, F Nobilo (New Zealand) #227,208.76; 13,
P Broadhurst #225,510.17; 14, J M Olazabal (Spain) #215,988.14; 15, D
Gilford #208,554.64; 16, J Parnevik (Sweden) #204,462.56; 17, G Brand,
Jr #198,803.27; 18, A Forsbrand (Sweden) #194,673.05; 19, G Turner (New
Zealand) #191,226.56; 20, W Westner (South Africa) #181,736.32.
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