So Angelo and I head back to the 18th tee for the first play-off hole and I again hit 3-iron, only this time I’m two yards closer to the green. I then hit 9-iron over the bunker and onto the green, which is of course what I should have done the first time. I don’t know if Angelo was going for the pin, but there’s a lot of trouble in front of that green. It’s not a good place to be.
Despite that, I was not at that stage foolish enough to think I had won the tournament. It’s funny, but what I was thinking about in the play-off was what Lin Wen-tang did to Rory [McIlroy, in 2008] with his miracle shot from the tees. I also thought about when Rory holed his bunker shot [in 2011]. Amazing things happen on that hole, so I was still very much in match play mode and felt like Angelo could still make par or even birdie.
When it came to my putt it just kept rolling. I definitely didn’t want to leave myself a downhill three-footer, and where I ended up - about five feet below the hole - left me with easiest putt on the green. After Angelo missed his effort for par I had the putt to win the biggest tournament of my career. I hit it exactly where I wanted to and despite taking a little bit of a bobble, it snuck in there on the left-hand side for a four. All of a sudden I’m the Hong Kong Open winner!
I didn’t spend too long celebrating afterwards. I headed straight to Macau where I was the defending champion. The reason is simple: I know too many lunatics in Hong Kong and they know how to party. The verandah at the Hong Kong Golf club is one of the best places in the whole of the golfing world, but a Sunday evening spent there, with free-flow Stella Artois on the go, also makes it quite a dangerous place to be. I didn’t want an epic hangover!
It was the right way to end a truly fantastic week.
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