Benjamin Hebert had to accept T2 in the Turkish Airlines Open in Belek after his 5-under-par 32-35=67 for 20-under 268 earned a play-off with Kurt Kitayama, Erik Van Rooyen, Victor Perez, Tyrrell Hatton and Matthias Schwab, but he failed to break par at the first extra hole.
A heart-breaking third play-off defeat for him this season, after the China and Scottish Opens. On the other hand, the Frenchman had said all week that he preferred this course to the other used by the tournament and the numbers prove it. He had three failures to breach the top 50 at Carya and now adds this result at Montgomerie Maxx Royal to the T18 he registered in 2015. He had cruised the front nine, ticking the second, fourth and eighth. On the back nine he dropped a 15’0" birdie look at the 13th to get within one of the lead, but couldn’t add another at the vulnerably short par-4 15th nor when tentative from 7’0" at the 16th. A wild tee shot into rough followed, but he responded with an iron to 10’0". Again he failed to take the chance. At 18 he needed birdie to make the play-off (and hope others struggled); it all came to pass courtesy of a good 8’0" conversion before a clumsy effort at the second time of asking.