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Matt Wallace champion dazzled by the country Filipe Lima best Portuguese

Matt Wallace – winner of Portugal Open at Morgado Golf Course

The 27-year-old englishman won his first title on the european tour and consequently is european tour card . Filipe Lima finish 22th, Pedro Figueredo recorded a personal best finishing 42nd and Ricardo Santos finished 68th . Minister of Economy, Manuel Caldeira Cabral praised the return of the Portugal Open at Morgado Golf Course and want to see it grow. Matt Wallace celebrates today (sunday) is first european tour title at 55th Open of Portugal @ Morgado Golf Resort, a tournament of half a million euros in prize money, which was played in portimão, after an absence of seven years.

Wallace, of 27 years, had already won eight titles as golf pro, but in smaller divisions, including six last year, when playing in the Alps Tour, one of the third divisions, European golf tours.

That success led him to rise to the challenge tour, the second division, where he was since the beginning of this season, but the success of today in Morgado Golf Course promoted him automatically to the first division, of the European Tour, where today appears on 111th rank in the race to dubai, after pocketing a prize of 83,330 euros.

Matt Walace walking to the 18th

Matt Wallace led from the first day and totaled 271 shots, 21 under par, adding rounds of 63 , 66, 73 and 69, beating by 3 shots the american julian suri, which, scored rounds of 67, 68, 74 and 65.

The 63 shots of wallace on the first day, 10 under par, set a new record, surpassing the 64 shots ( -9) of António sobrinho in the Algarve Open of Portugal in 2006, by pga.

During the four days, wallace was only threatened when suri arrived in front with 19 under par, but the english responded to the challenge with birdies on holes 13 and 16, to raise the bar to -21, while suri suffered 1 bogey on 17 to drop to -18.

«Portugal is a country with amazing, beauty, with great food, the weather is good in general and heard here in may, is usually very good time. Portugal will have a special place in my heart from this moment», words of the champion that must have sounded like a paradise for manuel caldeira cabral, the economy minister, who handed him the cup, along with miguel franco de sousa, the president of fpg.

Manuel Caldeira Cabral, in is speech on behalf of the government, praised “the return of the Open of Portugal», stressed” the importance for our tourism and the economy of the country “and expressed the wish that the tournement remains.

This was also the vote of filipe lima, once again the best portuguese in this tournament that retain so fond memories , since is third place in 2005.

«The Open of Portugal must take place every year. it’s huge, it’s the oldest tournament we have. have to go up a little more on “prize money” to attract better players. but i love to come here and i hope that this tournement in Morgado Golf Resort will remain for many years», said the portuguese olympic athlete.

Filipe Lima was 22nd, with 283 shots 9 under par, staying tied with the spaniard alvaro quirós, the Portugal Masters champion of 2008;

Matt Walace

5,425 euros award enabled him to rise from 240° to 224 on the race to dubai. ricardo melo, gouveia, despite the 36-hole eliminated continues to be the best portuguese, keeping is 95th place in this ranking of european first division. the Open of Portugal @ Morgado Golf Resort was organized by grupo nau hotels resorts, the fpg & and pga of Portugal. account to the world rankings, the race to dubai on the european tour and the race for the challenge oman tour, having distributed half a million euros in prizes.

See you all next year at Morgado Golf Resort, Algarve Portugal.

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