Sports
Unfriendly prerequisites reason havoc at Senior Starting up as Alex Cejka pips Padraig Harrington to title
At a windswept, rain-soaked Royal Porthcawl that offered some of primarily the most laborious prerequisites viewed in elite rivals in fresh instances, it regarded fully appropriate that a man who fled communist Czechoslovakia in a treacherous break out when accurate 9 years extinct won the Senior Starting up on Sunday.
Alex Cejka clearly knows a thing or two about standing as much as adversity and after conceding a two-shot outcome in Padraig Harrington over the final two holes at the South Wales hyperlinks, the 52-year-extinct gentle himself to beat the three-time major champion on the 2nd additional hole.
“Wow, what per week. What a day,” Cejka acknowledged. “It’s inconceivable. I still can’t imagine that I’m right here. Beating Padraig in a play-off, this kind of big player. I’m substantial gay.”
Cejka carded a 76 and Harrington returned a 75, with YE Yang and Rob Labritz the handiest avid gamers in a group aside to match the par of 71. No longer a single player broke par over a weekend which featured gusts topping 40mph and, remarkably, the 5-over complete required for a plot in the shoot-out was as soon as the same as the midway slash.
To position the severity of the duty in level of view, Ryder Cup chronicle Colin Montgomerie fired an 88 — and will not be in any recognize times going to even boast the worst final-round score. In all on Sunday, there have been 26 rounds of 80 or more in the 70 avid gamers who made the slash, with Patrik Sjolund primarily the most appealing casualty with an 18-over 89.
Watching on TV, former world #1 Justin Thomas summed up the licensed viewing trip along with his tweet “No longer gonna lie, I will’t close watching..” Thomas posted. “A PROPER hyperlinks golf climate day. It’s a ways absolute carnage for those guys and (I’m sorry) it is a ways fun to glance.”
Cejka — no more the practically man
Certainly, Cejka was as soon as primarily the most appealing winner. Right by the peak of the Gustav Husak regime, Cejka and his father — furthermore is known as Alex — travelled by foot and enlighten and by swimming and biking by what was as soon as then Yugoslavia, Italy and Switzerland, ahead of settling end to Frankfurt. Alex Sr, a level-qualified engineer, firstly fed the household by cleaning tables at a restaurant.
“He taught me a huge lesson when we came to a assorted country,” Cejka acknowledged. “I didn’t know systems to be in contact the language, I didn’t have any money and my dad didn’t have any money. You be taught to fight, the survival is there, and that reveals it doesn’t topic if you happen to would perchance perchance very neatly be 15 or 23 or 40, that drive is there.
“The general day out, the complete instruct made me into a particular person that prospers, doesn’t want to quit. If I fail, I’ll attempt again.”
That is arguably the high level of Cejka’s profession, and no longer least as a outcome of the £400,000 a hit cheque and the exemption into next year’s Starting up lovely at Royal Troon. Taking part in below the German flag, he reached a high of 33 in the arena rankings and virtually qualified for the 2004 Ryder Cup, captained by compatriot and inspiration Bernhard Langer.
At the 2009 Avid gamers Championship – AKA “the fifth major” – Cejka took a 5-shot lead into the final round at Sawgrass ahead of being overhauled by Swede Henrik Stenson. Nonetheless, he’s the “practically man” no more, after seeing off Harrington for his third senior “major”. Harrington furthermore completed 2nd in the same match last year.