Sunday round up: G-Mac on the up, McGee 25th, Meadow wins singles
PGA Tour — Graeme McDowell believes he's close to peaking for the US Open after he finished tied for 24th behind Ben Crane in the FedEx St Jude Classic in Memphis.
McDowell closed with a pair of 70s to finish on three under, seven shots behind Crane, who shot a final round 73 for a one-shot win over Troy Merritt, his fifth PGA Tour victory and his first since the 2011 McGladrey Classic.
Pre Us Open prep is dinner at @Nonabluetavern with my girls. Game was close this week. Bring on Pinehurst. #USOpen http://t.co/LusbUCYnzt
— Graeme McDowell (@Graeme_McDowell) June 8, 2014
McDowell was even happy to retweet a fan, who sent him a video to remind him how well he played to win the US Open at Pebble Beach in 2010.
Graeme McDowell's US Open winning final round from 2010 at Pebble Beach.
As for Pádraig Harrington, he had a Sunday to forget and finished tied 65th on six over after blowing his title chances with a disastrous finish to his third round.
Nine behind on four under with nine holes of his third round to complete when play was suspended on Saturday night, he came back out and played the back nine in eight over 43, putting three balls in the water en route to a 79.
A two over closing 72 gives him plenty to work on ahead of his next start in the Irish Open next week.
Mikael Lundberg © Getty Images
European Tour — Simon Thornton's closing 72 gave him a share of 14th behind Mikael Lundberg who holed a 40 foot birdie putt on the first play-off hole to deny Bernd Wiesberger a second win on home soil and capture the Lyoness Open powered by Greenfinity.
The pair finished tied on 12 under par at Diamond Country Club after Lundberg surged through the field with a closing 65 and Wiesberger returned a 69, having let slip a one shot lead with three holes to play.
The players returned to the par three 18th for the play-off, and it was advantage Wiesberger after the tee shots – only for Lundberg to hole for an unlikely birdie.
Despite being willed on by large crowds in Atzenbrugg, Wiesberger was unable to match it from 18 feet, and was therefore left with an anxious wait to see if he had done enough to move up to 60th place in the Official World Golf Ranking to qualify for his US Open Championship debut.
Thornton finished on four under while rookie Ruaidhri McGee, the Rosapenna touring professional, ended up tied 25th on one under after a 75.
Tied for 10th overnight, McGee birdied the first but dropped five shots in a seven holes spell in the middle of his round before following birdies at the 12th and 13th with a bogey at the next.
It was still a fine performance from the 23-year old who earned €9,500 for his week's work.
Michael Hoey (72) was 48th on two over and earned €4,500 while Thornton's cheque for €14,700 took his season's earnings to €105,898 and 115th in the Race to Dubai.
Hoey is 38th with €330,949 with McGee getting on the board at 223rd.
Santiago Luna © Getty Images
European Senior Tour — Ronan Rafferty was the best of the Irish as a stunning seven under 64 helped Santiago Luna charge through the field to lift the ISPS Handa PGA Seniors Championship at the Stoke by Nayland Hotel, Golf & Spa.
Luna started his final round two strokes behind leader Steen Tinning of Denmark but he finished the day at the top of the pile after a masterful performance saw him put together an eagle, six birdies and just a single dropped shot to take the €46,304 first prize.
Rafferty shot 70 to tie for 15th on six under, eight behind Luna, and earn € 4,118 as Des Smyth closed with a 67 to take joint 19th (€3,137) on five under.
Philip Walton's 68 left him a shot further back in 23rd (€2,687) with Denis O'Sullivan's 70 for 38th on one over earning him € 1,909.
Moritz Lampert Picture © Carlos Beautell
Challenge Tour — Stephen Grant closed with a three under 68 to share 42nd as Germany’s Moritz Lampert won his second Challenge Tour title in the space of three weeks with a superb round of 63 on the final day of the Fred Olsen Challenge de España.
Having prevailed in last month’s Kärnten Golf Open presented by Mazda with a 19 under par aggregate total, Lampert duly doubled his tally of Challenge Tour title with another feat of low scoring at Tecina Golf, on Spain’s Canary Islands.
Lampert’s 20 under par score earned him a two shot win from Belgian Hugues Joannes and a cheque for €25,600, which moved the 22 year old to second place behind Spaniard Jordi Garcia Pinto in the Challenge Tour Rankings and within sight of sealing a swift return to The European Tour.
Grant ended on five under (€880) with Alan Dunbar's 73 relegating him to tied 57th on one under (€520).
Curtis Cup — Dun Laoghaire is next up for the Curtis Cup in 2016 when GB&I will be bidding to win for just the second time in 10 matches after suffering a 13-7 defeat to the USA at St Louis Country Club.
US based Royal Portrush star Stephanie Meadow said goodbye to the amateur ranks with a 2 and 1 singles win over Alison Lee. But while they won the singles session 4.5 - 3.5, it was a disappointing week for the visitors.
Trailing by seven points entering the eight singles, the result was a foregone conclusion though skipper Tegwen Matthews tried to look on the bright side.
"Well, coming out, I have to say, so proud of the girls for how they rallied all day today," she said. " Especially, more especially when they knew the match was gone, and yet they never gave up. That could have put the chins really even further down.
"But no, we won the afternoon singles session. So that's a great way to finish and gives everyone a bit of a boost to say the least from a pretty disastrous two days, yeah."
Meadow played in all five sessions, winning two halves in the foursomes with Georgia Hall before claiming her singles point with two under par figures.
St Andrews Links Trophy — Scotland's Grant Forrest beat compatriot Bradley Neil in a playoff to clinch the St Andrews Links Trophy after they had finished on nine under 278. Scoreboard
West Waterford's Gary Hurley (70-72 over the Old Course on Sunday) was tied 15th on three under with Mourne's Reeve Whitson (75-69) a shot further back on two under in 20th.
Naas' Jack Hume (76-69) was tied 25th on one under 286.
Whitson was in good form afterwards:
Missed the boat home stuck in Scotland for another night, got this mad man for company! @RichieODonovan pic.twitter.com/dLmet6PWwf
— Reeve Whitson (@Reevewhitson) June 8, 2014