Pars on the final two holes in regulation play on Sunday ended up costing Thriston Lawrence victory in the DP World Tour’s flagship Rolex Series event, the BMW Championship at Wentworth.
For all that, it was a superb performance from Lawrence as he finished in a share of second after being eliminated in the first extra hole of a play-off with world number three Rory McIlroy and eventual winner Billy Horschel of the United States.
Those final consecutive par-fives – which offer a tantalising opportunity to players on the hunt at Wentworth – saw Lawrence make birdies on them in rounds one and three, and costly bogeys in round two. In the final round, his second shots ended up hurting him. On 17, he laid up, and seemed to push the shot too close to the green. The consequence was he played his third long, and two-putted from the back fringe for par. On the 18th, his second came from just off the fairway, and he was unable to control it as well as he had hoped. His third ended up spinning back towards the water left of the green, and his birdie putt from 28 feet ended up agonisingly close to going in.
Despite all that and the frustration he will inevitably feel about the performance, he will draw satisfaction from going toe-to-toe with the likes of McIlroy and so nearly pulling it off. The little matter of the certain rise in his world ranking position will also give him plenty to smile about.
He finished his final round bogey-free, with three birdies on the front nine – including chip-ins on one and two – and four on the back nine for a seven-under 65. That is an impressive performance under the pressure of trying to win a tournament coming from five strokes off the lead and the inevitable risk-taking that involves.
Behind him on the leaderboard was a long list of players who outranked him on the world rankings: Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, Adam Scott, Aaron Rai, Matthieu Pavon, Andrew Johnson, Shane Lowry, Byeong Hun An, Justin Rose, Alex Noren, Nicolai Hojgaard and Thomas Detry.
It was Lawrence’s seventh top-10 finish on the DP World Tour, and his fifth runner-up spot. The breakthrough is surely just a putt away.
