Buckle wins Virginia Beach Open
BY Bruce Young | Nationwide Tour | 2006 Virginia Beach Open | Wrap | 08 May 2006
The first week of May is clearly a week that will be long remembered in the golfing career of 23-year-old Queenslander, Andrew Buckle. It is already a date that Buckle will look back on fondly as he moves forward in his career. Today, exactly twelve months after a career changing runner up placing to K.J. Choi at the SK Telekom Open in Korea, Buckle has won the Virginia Beach Open by extending his two shot overnight lead to five.
At the SK Telekom Open in Korea last year, Buckle not only finished runner up to K.J. Choi but he finished alongside Fred Couples and it was that performance, perhaps more than any other, that gave this talented player the belief that would take him on to further solid finishes on the Asian Tour in 2005 and 2006.
Buckle’s win today was the third Australian victory on the Nationwide Tour in 2006 and continues the remarkable level of success Australian golfers are having in the US on the Nationwide, USPGA and the LPGA Tours.
For Buckle it was just his second win in professional golf, his first coming the very week he turned professional at the 2002 Queensland Open on the Development Tour in Australia but now that he has found his feet in professional golf, there will be many more to come.
Buckle, who arrived in the US after a successful few months on the 2006 Asian Tour where he led the moneylist, now moves from 150th to 8th place on the Nationwide Tour money list as a result of the win. He is on track to gain access to the Tour he has had his eyes on since turning professional three and a half years ago – the USPGA Tour. He missed out on a good opportunity last year when he narrowly missed his USPGA Tour card at the Tour School, but there seems little doubt he has benefited from the confidence that two runner up placings in events co-sanctioned between the Asian and European Tours in 2006 have given him.
A brilliant third round of 64 had Buckle two ahead of Justin Bolli heading into the final round today and he quickly put the issue beyond doubt with a birdie and an eagle in his first five holes. When Bolli double bogeyed the 10th, Buckle had the luxury of a five shot lead as he made the turn. Bolli finished second, albeit five shots behind.
New Zealander Michael Long continued the form shown by the down under brigade when he produced his best finish in more than eighteen months to close the tournament is outright third following a last round 69.
Other Australians to make the cut included Kim Felton who finished 6th, Steve Collins 24th, David McKenzie 29th, Michael Sim 35th, Cameron Percy 39th, Paul Gow 42nd, Nick Flanagan and Bradley Hughes 45th, and Matthew Jones 54th.
The Nationwide Tour now moves to Arkansas for the Rheem Classic.
Read more about Andrew Buckle in a recent interview we conducted with him before he headed to the US.
