Francesco Laporta Just Missed the Podium at the Omega European Masters
Francesco Laporta was among the standout performers at the Omega European Masters, where he finished fourth with a score of 264 (-16) thanks to a strong performance. On the Crans-sur-Sierre GC course (par 70) in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, South African Thriston Lawrence (262 – 64 63 73 62, -18), who finished the tournament tied with England’s Paul Casey (262 – 67 64 63 68), a member of LIV Golf, and then edged him out with a birdie on the fourth hole of the playoff.
Lawrence, a 29-year-old from Nelspruit, claimed his third victory in the tournament—his second in a row following last year’s win, which came after his first victory in 2022. He rallied from 10th place with a spectacular 62 (-8, eight birdies) and waited a long time in the clubhouse for Casey, a 49-year-old from Cheltenham, to finish his round. Casey, who held a one-stroke lead on the 17th hole, saw his ball roll off the green on the final hole, resulting in a bogey (68, -2, seven birdies, three bogeys, one double bogey) that forced the playoff. Then, in the play-off, the Englishman twice missed the putt for the decisive birdie, which Lawrence sank from a distance on the fourth hole to claim his sixth title on the tour.
In third place with 263 (-17) was England’s Harry Hall; tied for fourth with Laporta were Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger and the Spaniards Angel Hidalgo, Angel Ayora, and Eugenio Chacarra; in ninth place with 265 (-11) were the Swiss Joel Girrbach and the Englishman Matt Wallace, the 2024 champion. Just behind them, in 11th place with 266 (-14) is American Patrick Reed, the leader of the Race to Dubai (order of merit), and in 30th place with 271 (-9) is Spaniard Sergio Garcia, also in the Arab Super League, who faltered after a strong start.
In addition to his six victories on the DP World Tour, Lawrence has four wins on the Sunshine Tour—where he began his career—one on the MENA Golf Tour, one on the Big Easy Tour, and one on the IGT Pro Tour. In 143 starts, he has recorded 22 additional top-ten finishes (including six second-place finishes). He earned a check for 548,226 euros out of a total prize purse of approximately 3,230,000 euros (the official figure is $3,750,000).
In the tournament, now in its 92nd edition (formerly known as the Swiss Open), the South African joined the other six players with three victories, a record in the tournament’s history: Spain’s Severiano Ballesteros, South Africa’s Harold Henning, Wales’ Dai Rees, France’s Auguste Boyer and Marcel Dallemagne, and Scotland’s Alec Ross.
