By David Ferguson
I said on Saturday night that a round of 65 might be enough to secure victory for one of the four players who started the day on 3-under, five shots adrift of overnight leader Richard Finch. Events almost proved me right, although in fact a round of 66 would have done. But the two players who did shoot 66, Scotland's Andrew Coltart and Kurt Barnes of Australia, were too far behind to come back into contention, though they did enjoy a significant boost to their weekend's paycheque.
![Scott Strange, resplendent in the golden jacket of the 2009 Volvo China Open Champion [China.org.cn]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20090420/000802aa2f490b56249c39.jpg "Scott Strange, resplendent in the golden jacket of the 2009 Volvo China Open Champion [China.org.cn]") |
|
Scott Strange, resplendent in the golden jacket of the 2009 Volvo China Open Champion [China.org.cn]
|
New Zealand's Mark Brown came closest to working the miracle. Mark shot a course record 65 in round 3 to come back from last place to joint sixth. And at one point in the final round when he held the lead on his own it seemed he might achieve the unthinkable – I cannot believe there has been another occasion in modern golf when a player has won a tournament coming from last place following the cut.
The pattern of play in the tournament has followed two trends – the leaders at the start of play have struggled to consolidate their position and make a clean break, and no one has succeeded in shooting two consecutive low scores.
The first trend was repeated in the final round, with the clear overnight leaders, England's Richard Finch and Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano both making early bogeys, and neither able to make a single birdie on the front nine. But Mark Brown seemed to be about to buck the second trend.
Continuing his impeccable third-round form, he picked up birdies on 4 and 6 to move to 5-under, and then, dramatically, two more consecutive birdies on 8 and 9 to join Richard Finch in the lead on 7-under. Brown struggled to save par on the birdiable 10th, where an undercooked wedge left him with a huge uphill and downhill putt which he overhit, but he made the return of about 8 feet to stay on 7-under.
As he stood on the 11th tee the on-course scoreboards were still showing Brown in a joint lead, but in fact he was heading the field on his own. Richard Finch had dropped a stroke on 7 to go to 6-under, and he would make another bogey on 9. Castano too was on 6-under, where he had been joined by England's David Dixon and Australia's Scott Strange.
![Spot the Ball! Mark Brown almost eagled this chip on 9, but harder times lay ahead. [China.org.cn]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20090420/000802aa2f490b5625033a.jpg "Spot the Ball! Mark Brown almost eagled this chip on 9, but harder times lay ahead. [China.org.cn]") |
|
Spot the Ball! Mark Brown almost eagled this chip on 9, but harder times lay ahead. [China.org.cn]
|
At that point Brown had played an astonishing sequence of 31 holes in 11-under par without a single bogey. On a course as testing as the CBD Club – there were only three bogey-free rounds in the total of 458 rounds played in the tournament – that was an extraordinary feat.
