Alexander

Levy

The 32-year-old Frenchman carded a bogey-free, 8-under 64 in the final round at London Golf Club and finished solo second at 15-under 273, one shot behind winner Calum Hill. “I played really, really well this week, and I’m really proud of what I did,” said Levy, whose last victory came at the 2018 Trophee Hassan II. “It’s really nice to feel the pressure of winning again. … I am very happy with the quality of my game. I wanted to win this tournament by playing well and not by waiting for the mistakes of other players. There are a lot of positive things to remember, I’m really happy with this second place. … Big tournaments are coming in the next few days. I can’t wait to play them.” On the season, the world No. 246 has made 12 cuts in 19 starts with one other top 10 – a T-9 at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in January. Levy will make his second appearance in this week’s D+D Real Czech Masters at Albatross Golf Resort, where he finished T-18 in 2019.

The Frenchman received a negative test when he got on property this week but was in close contact with a friend back home last week who has since tested positive for COVID-19. “I told the European Tour immediately after finding out that my friend tested positive, I informed them of my movements since arriving on site as I wanted to ensure the safety of my fellow professionals and their caddies.” Levy and Wattel will now isolate for at least 14 days before returning to action.

Generally speaking the Frenchman has had a poor time of it at Abu Dhabi GC, but there have been two bright moments in among the gloom. In those seven previous visits he has five times not broken the top 50, with three of those efforts failing to make the weekend. But in 2015 he was tied third after 54, albeit seven swings back of the lead and although he ended Sunday just one shot further back of the winner, he placed T20. Three years later he was T7. He begins this year off the back of a very peculiar end to 2019, which started right after he was T5 in Saudi Arabia. In his next 20 outings he made only five cuts, but four of them were top 25s.

It’s not been a great 18 months for the Frenchman since he won the Trophee Hassan II at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam and with it granted himself an outside shot at making the European Ryder Cup team in Paris. That prospect appeared to wear him down and he didn’t make another top ten until the match had taken place without him. This year he has made two top fives, but they have been outliers. In his last 19 starts he has missed no less than 14 cuts, but the oddball thing is that he’s played well when he has made Saturday and Sunday. Those five weekends have reaped five finishes of T23 or better, four of them top 15 with two fifth places.

It has been a dire summer for the Frenchman. He has gone 3-for-14 since the last week of April and although the cuts made have reaped nice enough rewards (T23 at the Belgian Knockout, T18 in the Czech Masters, T5 in the Scandinavian Invitational), he will be downhearted at his results from a swing and putting makeover last summer. Moreover, he is not the greatest links performer. True, he was T7 here in 2017, but he has three missed cuts in six visits and it is his only top 20. He is 0-for-4 on links in Ireland, lacks a top 20 on Scottish Open links in seven tries and is 0-for-4 in the Open.

After a rough season (currently 134th on the Race to Dubai), the Frenchman secured his first top 20 since February when tied 18th in last week’s Czech Masters, shooting three 70s and a closing 68. He rode that momentum today to set a blistering pace with six birdies in his opening nine holes. That set included deuces on the par 3s at 10, 12 and 15. Levy, a five-time winner on the European Tour, cooled coming home with a birdie-bogey trade at 3 and 4 before a walk-off circle at 9 to set the target. Right now, he’s tied with Wade Ormsby (two to play) and one in front of Matt Fitzpatrick (playing 18). In three of his five wins, he’s twice opened with 63 and also fired a R1 62 at the 2016 Porsche European Open so this fast start bodes well.

It’s been a difficult 18 months for the Frenchman. When he won the Trophee Hassan II last April he had an outside chance of a Ryder Cup berth and therefore got asked lots of questions about it. He was clearly a little rattled by this and at the same time he was trying to rebuild his swing and improve his putting. Since that week in Morocco he has just two top tens. He lost that shot at the Ryder Cup and with it his game. He was T5 in the Saudi International, but that is his only top 15 of the season, next best is the T18 he managed last week in the Czech Masters. He’s yet to play this course but has three top 25s from four tournament starts including T3 in 2015 and T15 two years ago.

It’s not been a good year for the Frenchman who has ranked 44th or better in the last five seasons and is now only 105th having made just one top ten (T5 Saudi Arabia) in seven starts. Worse still, he hasn’t made a weekend in four outings and has broken 75 just twice in his last six laps. His stats further reveal the troubled year. He doesn’t rank top 100 for any driving category, does so only for SG: Approach the Green (79th) in Approach categories, in only the basic Scrambling stat (84th) when around the greens, and whilst he is top 40 for Putting Average and Putts per Green he is 148th for SG: Putting.

The weather is not forecast to be poor this week, but an English spring by the seaside always has the potential to be cold. And one thing to note about Levy is that he is brutally honest – indeed he once admitted live on air that he prefers target golf in nice weather. Wonderful honesty, but it might explain his links record. He is 0-for-1 in England, 0-for-3 in Ireland and whilst 9-for-15 in Scotland he has only two top 20s. One was the last 16 of the Lawrie Match Play, the other T7 in the 2017 Dunhill Links. It’s also a concern that he has played two courses he is a past winner on in the last fortnight and missed the cut by a mile both times.

Levy had won his four previous European Tour titles with scores of 17-under or lower but showed he could flourish in tougher scoring conditions when firing 8-under to take victory by a shot from Alvaro Quiros. However, the win did reinforce another trend as it was the Frenchman’s third in the month of April so this is a good time of year for him. Gamers have another good reason to get him on board as Levy has made an excellent job of past title defenses, with a second, a third and a tied 14th. He pulled out of the Oman Open after a R1 68 on his last start but appeared to dismiss that as a minor injury concern when interviewed earlier this week. Prior to that he was T5 at the Saudi International so the signs look good.