Marcus Fraser claims first European Tour title with win in Russia

BY Bruce Young | European PGA Tour | 2003 BMW Russian Open | Wrap | 17 Aug 2003

In October of last year 25-year-old Australian, Marcus Fraser, took individual honours at the Eisenhower Trophy in Malaysia and just ten months later, he has claimed two victories on the European Challenge Tour and now a win on the European Tour.

The Russian Open played at the Le Meridien Moscow Golf and Country Club featured a first for Russia and a first for the man from Victoria. This was the first staging of the Russian Open, as a European Tour event, in Russia and for Fraser his first European Tour win.

The reward for such a victory is not just the 66,000 euros ($A115,000) but the chance to play the European Tour ahead of his planned start in 2004. His two wins earlier in the year on the Challenge Tour and two other top tens on that tour had already assured him the right to play the European Tour next year but this win now means he will immediately join Brett Rumford, who achieved a similar feat earlier in the season in France at the St Omer Open. Like this tournament, the St Omer Open was also co-sanctioned between the main and the secondary tour and by winning there Rumford was able to regain his card in Europe that he had lost the previous season.

Fraser is clearly a huge talent. He had a fine record as an amateur which included wins in the 2001 New Zealand Amateur over Eddie Lee and the above mentioned individual honours in Malaysia but his successful transition to the professional ranks has been quite startling. He led one of the early qualifying stages for the European Tour in 2002 even before turning pro, later missing his card by just one shot. He then led after 36 holes at the Nationwide /Australasian Tour’s Jacobs Creek Classic in Adelaide in February only to be disqualified for an inadvertent scorecard error and now his remarkable season to date.

Fraser and Martin Wiegele of Austria had led into round four and both produced rounds of 68 to ensure a playoff. They both birdied the first playoff hole, the par four eighteenth, but when they returned to do it again Fraser’s par was good enough to secure the title.

There are a lot of similarities between the winner and the runner up. Both recently turned pro with Wiegele also finishing his amateur career at the 2002 Eisenhower and they were born within two weeks of each other in July of 1978. For Wiegele this too was a great opportunity to gain access to the main tour for the first time. His runner up cheque, however, will ensure that he once again faces Fraser in 2004 as he will now move inside the top ten on the Challenge Tour money. Wiegele’s form of late has also been very good having finished second in Finland four weeks ago behind Jamie Elson and third behind Fraser, again in Finland, at his last start.

Steve Bowditch was next best of the Australasians finishing in 42nd place with Brad Kennedy at 49th. They were the only other Australasians to make the cut this week.