Jonathan Thomson fourth and Jamie Bower sixth to provide strong Yorkshire showing in Slovakia

YORKSHIRE county player Jonathan Thomson carded a final round 71 to tie fourth in the European Championship in Slovakia.
By Chris Stratford
Published 8th Aug 2015, 19:11 BST
Lindrick GC's Jonathan Thomson.Lindrick GC's Jonathan Thomson.
Lindrick GC's Jonathan Thomson.

The Lindrick GC player finished on 16 under par (​69 64 68 71), three shots back of winner Steffano Mazzoli, of Italy.

The halfway leader, Meltham’s Jamie Bower, finished one shot adrift of Thomson in a tie for sixth (66 65 71 71) and Bedale’s Walker Cup hopeful Dan Brown placed tied 23rd on 12 under (69 67 70 70).

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Thomson’s tumultuous outward nine included four birdies, but also a bogey and a double bogey. Things were calmer during a homeward nine of level par with one bogey negating his sole birdie.

Bower had three birdies going out, but dropping a shot at the 481-yard par-5 second for the second successive round will have hurt as he saw the par-5s as a possible route to success, having birdied all four on both days one and two.

On his back nine he had two further birdies, but also three more bogeys.

Brown went to the turn in level par and found four birdies coming home, but their effect was halved by a double bogey at the 407-yard par-4 13th.

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Thomson said of the experience: “All in all it was a great week and I have some great stuff to take from it.

“I hit it great, [on Saturday]. They had made the pins really quite difficult hence the scoring throughout the field has been nowhere near as good as on the other days.

“I hit it close but in the wrong parts of the greens so I just didn’t get anything in the hole again.

“My game feels very solid and I’m in a good place with it. If I keep on putting myself in contention I will get over the line at some point.

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“I’m taking all the positives into next week for the Lee Westwood Trophy at Rotherham.”

Bower was dismayed at not being able to take full advantage of his first two days’ excellence.

“The last two days were very disappointing, to be honest, I just couldn’t get anything going,” he said.

“I had a terrible front nine of two over [on Friday] and then recovered well, and [on Saturday] back to back bogeys on the back nine just killed my chances really.

“All in all it was a good finish but I’m disappointed not to win after leading at the halfway stage.”

Related topics:ThomsonSlovakiaYorkshireItalyBedale