TWO visits to the opening hole at Murcar without either player putting on its green perfectly book-ended a match that Marc Warren considered the most bizarre of his career but which, in more senses than one, provided him with a cracking experience.
The Scottish No 1, who was the highest-seeded player to make it to the weekend at the Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Matchplay, had already produced an excellent performance in the morning to see off “Miracle at Medinah” 2012 Ryder Cup team member Nicolas Colsaerts, when he set out against England’s Tyrrell Hatton in the quarter-final.
Two ugly drives into bunkers at the first betrayed the form both had shown to reach the last eight, but after hacking out of a fairway bunker, Hatton set the tone for what was to come.
“We both chipped out and he holed it from about 100 yards for three. So that was the start,” Warren said. “He had two other chips in after that, one into 18 to go to extra holes and I guess it was just my turn at the 19th to hole out. I hit a good tee shot and holed the second from 59 yards. It was just really bizarre from start to finish.”
All the more so because, as a result of back problems, he and Hatton ended up sharing pain- killers during the round after Warren had been forced to call for the physio to help address a niggling thoracic issue on the inside of his shoulder blade.
“I decided to call in the physio and he kind of worked his magic up at the green,” he said. He barely laid his hands on me and my back started cracking already.
“I’ve had that probably since my late teens. Whenever I stretch anything there it always cracks but not quite as much as that. It must have been four or five cracks and it instantly felt as if I was a little bit freer.
“The pain was still there obviously but I felt freer to move.”
Past experience means he is now confident of being fit for this morning’s semi-final against Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat while, in terms of domestic interest, the manner in which he progressed went some way to making up for the painful nature of Richie Ramsay’s ejection as, after a hard fought battle with Robert Karlsson, he was hit by two sucker punches in the closing holes.
With the match all square, the Aberdonian left the tee at the short 16th to congratulatory comments from the supportive gallery after hitting his approach much closer, only for the Swede to hole from more than 30 feet away, while his own attempt from around 20 feet grazed the hole.
When Karlsson then found a bunker off the tee at the 17th Ramsay looked certain to tie things up heading down the last, as he was eight feet away in two, while his opponent was short of the green in three. However, Karlsson then produced what proved to be the decisive blow by chipping in.
“I’m not really too bothered about losing to be honest,” Ramsay said. “I know that sounds funny and I would have loved it to carry on, but when things like that happen I can’t control what he’s doing. I didn’t play my best but I would say he won it, I didn’t give it away.”
Karlsson, who now meets former Ryder Cup team-mate David Howell, is revelling in a remarkable change of fate after six consecutive missed cuts and a performance in the pro-am for this event in which he “didn’t sniff making a birdie”.
He admitted he had even contemplated giving it a miss.
“When you get on runs like that it breaks you down mentally, especially when you’ve been out here for 25 years,” Karlsson said. “I thought it would be better to go home and practise, but then thought maybe a matchplay tournament could help me a bit.”
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