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Final Qualifying Stage The San Roque Club: Rocha's love affair with The European Tour continues at San Roque

/noticias.info/ It is generally acknowledged that if you are happy in your work you will do a good job and, in a golfing sense, Alexandre Rocha proved that to be true as the Brazilian, who has fallen in love with The European Tour, stormed into the lead after the fourth round of the Qualifying School – Final Stage at the San Roque Club in Spain.

Rocha, who celebrates his 29th birthday next Tuesday, started the day in a share of ninth place but moved up to pole position after a sensational 66 on the New Course, a stunning six under par effort which moved him to 11 under par 277 and one shot clear of the overnight leader Carlos Rodiles and Scotland’s David Drysdale, whose respective rounds of 75 and 68 left them on ten under par 278.

Rocha participated in the Final Stage last year and won the 11th card on offer, but nine missed cuts in his 24 starts on The 2006 European Tour saw him finish 125th on the Order of Merit to necessitate a return. But, far from being downheartened, the Brazilian admitted he had relished the experience and could not wait to get back on Tour in 2007.

“It has been awesome,” he said. “If I didn’t love it I wouldn’t be here. I am a Brazilian player who lives in the USA and I always have the choice to go and play over there, but I choose to come over here because I like it so much.

“It’s a fun Tour and a great place to learn how to play different conditions and courses and the camaraderie is excellent. That’s why I am here – I choose to come here. I had a great time last year getting to know other players and places and I am looking forward to continuing that.”

Certainly if he continues to play on Tour next year the way he did in the fourth round, he will not need any other trips to the Qualifying School, carding seven birdies in total including three in his first four holes from the tenth to the 13th.

His only dropped shot of the day came at the 15th where he missed the green with his approach shot but he more than made up for that with further birdies at the 16th, the second, the fifth and the sixth.

“It has been a bit of an odd week with us having been here for seven or eight days already but, actually, I think the days in between rounds have helped me relax and take a bit of time out,” he added. “Being relaxed is definitely the key to getting through such a time-consuming, nerve-wracking event.”

Second placed Rodiles could have held onto the lead that had been in his possession since the end of the second round but for an unfortunate ending to his day, shanking the ball into the water hazard with his approach shot to the 18th, a mistake which cost him a double bogey six and a 75.

“It came from nowhere,” said the shellshocked Spaniard. “I was in the middle of the fairway and I just cold shanked it – it was totally unexpected and a terrible thing to happen. But apart from that I played all right, I hit a lot of greens but did not have too many real birdie chances.

“Realistically you are probably not going to have six great rounds over the course of six days so I just need to get this one out of my head and hope that’s the bad round out of the way.”

Alongside him, Drysdale moved closer to regaining the playing privileges for The European Tour he lost by a mere €1,139 and one place this year with an excellent 68, a flawless round which featured two birdies in his closing three holes.

“I’m not nervous but continuing to play good golf all the time over the six rounds is very difficult,” he said. “For some reason I didn’t strike it that well on the range before I went out and then got off to a slow start, but it came back which was good.”

Sharing fourth place on nine under par 279 were England’s Warren Bennett and Notah Begay III of the United States, Begay providing the pick of the leading players with a 67 while Bennett posted a 71.

It was Begay’s lowest round of the week and the 34 year old, who played for the United States in the Presidents Cup in 2000, admitted he was excited about the prospect of playing full time on The European Tour.

“I gave up the chance to go to the US PGA Tour School when I withdrew my application this week, so you can’t get rid of me now!” joked the native American Indian. “But my wife and I are excited about coming over and playing over here but I still have some work to do for two days.”

Continuing that theme Begay admitted that, although now in with an obvious chance of winning the Qualifying School Final Stage, he refused to think about that prospect until it was a possibility going into the final nine holes on Sunday, a facet of golf he often discussed with his good friend, World Number One Tiger Woods.

“Tiger and I have often talked about, just that you just keep fighting and fighting until the last nine holes of the tournament and if you have a chance then, the game can change a little bit,” he said. “But right now the most important thing for me is not looking at scoring or qualifying but just looking at doing the best I can possibly do.

“Tiger and I are still very good good friends. We spend a lot of time together in the off season and his wife and my wife have become friends too because we are all the same age so all four of us get on pretty well.”

After six days of competition, the Qualifying School – Final Stage finally reached the end of the fourth round and the cut, which fell at three over par 291 leaving 80 players to contest the final two rounds and battle for the 30 cards on offer to The 2007 European Tour.

Those to miss out on the final two days included 15 of the 26 former Tour winners who started out, including Diego Borrego, Tobias Dier, Malcolm Mackenzie, Dean Robertson and Philip Walton, who all fell short of the mark by just one stroke.

But perhaps the unluckiest man to join them was the 1997 Cannes Open winner Stuart Cage of England, who looked comfortable at two over par for the tournament with two holes to play, but who bogeyed the short eighth and then double bogeyed the par four ninth to finish on five over par 293 and miss out by two shots. notas_de_prensa_archivo