Flesch wins Reno Tahoe Open by five
BY Bruce Young | US PGA Tour | 2007 Reno-Tahoe Open | Round Four | 06 Aug 2007
Continuing the trend of big margin winners in tournament golf this week, left hander, Steve Flesch, has today won the Reno Tahoe Open by a massive five shot margin over Charles Warren and Kevin Stadler. Tiger Woods’ eight shot victory in Ohio and Lorena Ochoa’s four shot win at the Women’s British Open set the trend for Flesch to follow.
Flesch showed two weeks ago when 5th at the US Bank Championship that perhaps his ordinary season in 2007 was on the mend and his comprehensive victory this week further confirms that he is back to near his best after arthroscopic shoulder surgery in 2005.
Flesch led the event from his opening round of 63 and took a five shot lead into today’s final round. Although his momentum slowed considerably today, none of his chasers were able to apply any real pressure and the previous two time winner on the PGA Tour recovered from a slow start to round four to draw well clear once again.
Kevin Stadler kept his chances of retaining USPGA Tour status alive when he put together a strong final round of 70 to share second with Warren, who was also in need of a money list boost. Both players earned US$264,000 to keep their hopes of 2008 playing rights alive.
Steve Elkington was the best of the Australians in 6th place, continuing some good form of late while Jarrod Lyle picked up his best finish of his rookie PGA Tour season with a 12th.
After working his way into contention at a golf course where he has performed well previously, Steve Allan fell away on day four with the final round of 77 to finish 12th. It was a costly day for Allan as had been his final round in Canada last week where he led before finishing 7th. The last two weeks have provided great opportunities to secure his status in 2008 but he has fallen at the final hurdle. The upside is that Allan is playing well.
Of the rest of the Australians, Grant Waite was 25th, Gavin Coles 30th, and Andrew Buckle 57th.
