Fredrik Jacobson makes it two for 2003 season

BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2003 Portugal Open | Wrap | 21 Apr 2003

With four or five players close on his heels over the closing holes Fredrik Jacobson was going to need something special to hold them off. He chose the par five seventeenth to produce such a shot with a pitch in for eagle giving him the luxury of being able to bogey the last hole and still win.

Jacobson began the day with a narrow one shot lead over Greg Owen and Brian Davis and an opening birdie had things right on track. However, he then went on to bogey the third, fifth and sixth to fall behind Owen and share second place with Brian Davis. A birdie on the seventh had him back in the lead and from there on it became a five-way battle with Jamie Donaldson and Bradley Dredge emerging as threats over the final nine holes. That was until the seventeenth and the Swede’s heroics there assured him of his second win of the 2003 season (he had won in Hong Kong earlier in the season) and the first place cheque of 208,000 euros.

Dredge, Donaldson and Davis tied for second with Greg Owen alone in fifth.

Jacobson has been on the European Tour since 1995 but it has not been until the last three years that he has emerged as a genuine contender. This was only his second win in Europe but both have come within the space of just five months.

Of the Australasians only two ended up in the field and after Stephen Scahill had missed his fourth consecutive cut on Friday, it was left to Terry Price to lead that category finishing in 16th place after a last round 69. He earns 16,000 euros or $A28,000.

The European Tour heads to the Canary Islands for this coming week’s Canarias Open de Espana.