Englishman John Parry has won the European Tour&aposs Final Qualifying Stage in Girona to become one of 28 players to earn a tour card for 2013, along with Australians Daniel Gaunt and Scott Arnold. Parry fired a two-under 70 in Thursday&aposs sixth and final round to win the tournament at the PGA Catalunya Resort by four strokes. The 26-year-old birdied the third, ninth, 12th and 15th holes and while two bogeys kept him to just two-under on the day, he did enough to earn a fourth consecutive season on the European Tour. “I&aposm delighted,” he said. “I knew I had my card sewn up before today started, but I was going for the win and I&aposm happy to have got the job done. “It was nice to do it with a bit of a cushion going into the last few holes. I played pretty poorly for the first seven holes. The first two I made good up-and-downs and I was lucky to have a shot out of the trees on the third and made birdie there. “I was playing too negatively, and I think the bogey on the seventh gave me a bit of a kick to start playing how I was in the previous rounds. After that it was plain sailing.” Sweden&aposs Mikael Lundberg shot a three-under 69 to take second position in Girona on 15-under, while Parry&aposs compatriot Andy Sullivan finished third on 13-under. Peter Erofejeff shared fourth spot with Argentine Estanislao Goya and German amateur Moritz Lampert. Chris Lloyd pulled off a brilliant last round of five-under to surge into the top 28 and qualify for the 2013 European Tour. The 20-year-old Englishman managed two birdies on the final three holes to qualify in what was sweet relief after missing out by one stroke last year. Scotland&aposs George Murray&aposs emotions were at the other end of the spectrum after he double-bogeyed the final hole to miss out on a tour card by a stroke. Gaunt and Scott Arnold were the only Australians to earn European Tour cards on Thursday. Gaunt finished tied for seventh on 10-under after a solid 70, while Arnold&aposs topsy-turvy 71 was enough to sneak into next year&aposs European Tour with a score of five under. However, Terry Pilkadaris missed out after consecutive rounds of 73 saw him finish at four over for the tournament. Matthew Zions was also at four over, one stroke ahead of Kieran Pratt while Scott Strange was at seven over after five holes. Rohan Blizard (+14) and Jason Scrivener (+17) also missed out on a tour card.
Author: Omnisport