Raphaël

Jacquelin

Since withdrawing from May’s Made in Denmark, he’s failed to cash in seven starts. However, he shot a pair of 69s in the Scottish Open three tournaments ago and bowed out at halfway in last week’s Scandinavian Invitation despite a Friday 68 (an opening 75 did the damage). That suggests he may not be far away and Crans-sur-Sierre looks a good destination to snap the sequence. The Frenchman won a Challenge Tour event there way back in 1997 and has some some strong recent efforts with T7 in 2015 and T12 in 2016. He’s a player who can just pop so he could be a sneaky sleeper here.

The veteran Frenchman took T44 when this event was played for the first time last year, his best round a 69 on Thursday. He went one lower today thanks mainly to a run of three birdies in five holes (2, 3 and 6) on his second nine. Jacquelin started his round at the 10th and signed for three pars before making birdies at 13 and 16. He dropped his only shot at 18. It’s still something of an art trying to figure out when the Gallic golfer pops up on a leaderboard and he went into this week on the back of MC-61-63. Earlier in the campaign the 45-year-old scored top 20s in the Mauritius Open and Alfred Dunhill Championship.

The Frenchman posted his second place at Houghton in 2004 before the tournament moved to Leopard Creek the year after. Jacquelin never came back to play the new venue so had no past or present comparisons to make after the par 72 underwent alterations ahead of this year’s edition. He certainly enjoyed his first lap there this morning, finishing his round with birdies on the par 5s at 13, 15 and 18. Prior to that, he’d picked up shots at 2, 6 and 10 and also swallowed back-to-back bogeys at 4 and 5. On the one previous occasion in his last 11 starts he opened with a sub-70 round, the World No. 489 finished T7 at September’s Portugal Masters.

The Frenchman, a regular for many seasons on the European Tour, did play this event at Houghton back in 2004, its final year there, and finished runner-up. He’s also had top fives at the South African Open and Volvo Golf Champions and took T11 at the Nedbank Golf Challenge a couple of years ago so he’s performed well on various layouts in South Africa. A sweet swinger, it never surprises us when he performs strongly as he did when T10 at the Irish Open, T7 at the Portugal Masters and T17 in Mauritius last time. But during that run of results since the summer he’s also missed eight cuts so ‘mercurial’ may be the best way to describe him. He’s a risk but there is some obvious upside.

The Frenchman was 1-for-7 in birdie opportunities in the playoff before converting the winning putt from medium distance behind and above the hole at the par-4 18th, the only hole used in sudden death. Kieffer, a 22-year-old rookie from Germany playing in just his 16th event on the European Tour, left his longer birdie try well short to open the door. They finished regulation in 5-under 283, as did Felipe Aguilar of Chile. After the threesome carded two pars to start the playoff, Jacquelin and Kieffer birdied the third time through. Kieffer’s was the highlight as he rolled his attempt in from long distance from a lie off the green in the front right. Aguilar was eliminated when his chip failed to fall. Jacquelin and Kieffer then parred the hole five more times before Jacquelin’s second birdie. The nine-hole playoff ties the all-time European Tour record. Jacquelin, who will turn 39 years of age on May 8, picks up his fourth career title on the circuit.

The Frenchman has made just a single bogey through 36 holes, that coming on the par-3 8th today, and continues to thrive on Gut Larchenhof’s gettable par 5s. He birdied all four in round one and registered circles again at 3, 7 and 13 today. Jacquelin picked up his other shots at 6 and 12. When he signed for his 65, the four-time European Tour winner was a shot clear of Henrik Stenson but the Swede produced a late birdie to join him in top spot. Earlier, play was suspended for 48 minutes from 08:02 to 08:50 local time due to a threat of lightning.

The Frenchman’s touch was as sure as a musketeer as he required just 25 swipes of his blade on a hot day in Germany. After a becalmed start, with three straight pars from the tenth tee, the greens began to yield and he notched 6 birdies in his next 9 holes. A final red number at the par-five 7th took him into sole possession of the lead, one ahead of Oliver Fisher, with Felipe Aguilar, Zander Lombard and Thorbjorn Olesen a further shot back on 5-under. He led this event by 2 shots after 18 holes in 2003 and tied the R1 lead in 2005, both times at Nord-Eichenried GC. It’s his 12th start at Gut Larchenhof; he was T3 in 2004, but that is his only top 20 finish on the course. He revealed afterwards that he has been working with David Leadbetter in the last few weeks and commented on conditions: “It is always good to stay out of the rough, but a bit more so this week, it’s thick.”

The Frenchman revealed this week that he was so concerned with his long game at Wentworth last month he approached David Leadbetter and has been receiving lessons from the esteemed coach ever since. The first fruits of that partnership were born at the Nordea Masters, where he finished T8, and this result backs up his hard work, even if he may regret failing to progress in the final 36 holes, pegging rounds of 72-72 to the 65-68 he opened with. For a while on the final afternoon he promised to contend, with red numbers at 1, 3 and 5 drawing him 1 behind the eventual winner Henrik Stenson. But although he added 1 more red number at 13, there were also 4 bogeys which ultimately did for his victory chances.

The Frenchman has made this a regular stop down the years despite only reaching the weekend 50% of the time since T22 in 2001. His best result came courtesy of a fifth place at Barseback in 2006 while he also took T8 at Arlandastad in 2008. He added T24 at Bro Hof Slott (this week’s venue) in 2010 and posted another top 25 at PGA Sweden National two years ago. Trying to predict what Jacquelin will do next is never easy and that’s been apparent in the last fortnight. He missed the cut at Wentworth and prior to that was T23 in the Irish Open after shooting 69-79-66 over the final 54 holes.

Another good day for the Frenchman started off quietly as he posted three straight pars before he opened his birdie account with back-to-back circles at 4 and 5. On the homeward stretch he added further par breakers at 12, 13, 15 and 17 but ended with a slightly frustrating walk-off bogey at 18 to slip three behind leader Marc Warren. Presuming he stays there, Jacquelin will start the weekend in the top 10 for just the third time this season. He was T9 after 36 holes in the Indian Open before slipping to T65 and was the halfway leader in the BMW International Open, eventually finishing fourth. He sits 82nd on the Race to Dubai.