Matt Wallace
Matt Wallace

Open de Portugal: Matt Wallace claims his first European Tour title


Matt Wallace won his first European Tour title with a superb wire-to-wire victory at the Open de Portugal.

Final leaderboard: Top five


-21 Matt Wallace
-18 Julian Suri
-16 Matthieu Pavon
-15 Sam Walker, Sebastian Heisele

Scroll down for collated scores

Day four report


England's Matt Wallace held off a two-pronged assault on the final day to claim his first European Tour title with a superb wire-to-wire victory in the Open de Portugal.

Wallace held a five-shot lead at the halfway stage and was still three ahead starting the final round, but saw his advantage reduced to a single shot, first by German Sebastian Heisele and then American Julian Suri.

However, the 27-year-old Englishman held his nerve to card four vital birdies in a closing 69, his third bogey-free round of the week at Morgado Golf Resort giving him a winning total of 21 under par.

Suri had piled on the pressure with nine birdies in his first 15 holes, but bogeyed the 17th and had to settle for a closing 65 and second place on 18 under. France's Matthieu Pavon was two shots further back in third, wtih Heisele sharing fourth with England's Sam Walker on 15 under.

Wallace won six times on the Alps Tour last season - including five in a row - to secure a place on the Challenge Tour, but now has a full European Tour card after just his fourth event at this level.

"It's the best feeling ever," Wallace said after rounds of 63, 66, 73 and 69. "It's always been a dream to win on the European Tour.

"Those first two days were really easy, that third day was the hardest day of my life and today was tough but it's so satisfying and I'm really happy.

"A good friend of mine, Tom Lewis, won here in Portugal and I spoke to him yesterday and he has great memories here and I'm going to as well.

"I didn't see it coming, I never envisioned standing here, I just tried to go through my processes and work as hard as I could to be standing here today."

Day four collated scores


(Gbr & Irl unless stated, par 73):

271 Matt Wallace 63 66 73 69

274 Julian Suri (USA) 67 68 74 65

276 Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 68 69 70 69

277 Sam Walker 69 69 68 71, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 64 70 71 72

278 Ben Evans 68 68 73 69, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 69 70 69 70Mark Foster 70 72 67 69, Oliver Fisher 69 72 68 69

279 Marcus Armitage 70 68 71 70, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 68 69 72 70

280 Pontus Widegren (Swe) 73 70 72 65, Robert Rock 69 69 72 70 ,Thomas Linard (Fra) 68 75 69 68

281 Ryan Evans 71 68 71 71, Pedro Oriol (Spa) 68 70 72 71,Jamie Abbott 70 71 71 69

282 Tom Lewis 71 70 70 71, Max Orrin 69 73 72 68, Estanislao Goya (Arg) 71 68 75 68, Ashley Chesters 66 71 75 70

283 Jose-Filipe Lima (Por) 67 71 71 74, Roope Kakko (Fin) 70 70 72 71, Aaron Rai 70 72 74 67, Alvaro Quiros (Spa) 70 73 75 65

284 Charlie Ford 73 68 70 73, Matthew Nixon 69 72 74 69, Matthew Baldwin 71 69 73 71, Scott Fernandez (Spa) 69 72 73 70, Adrien Saddier (Fra) 68 71 73 72, Laurie Canter 70 68 73 73, Jordi Garcia (Spa) 70 73 67 74, Darius Van Driel (Ned) 67 75 73 69, Christian Braeunig (Ger) 68 69 76 71

285 Steve Webster 74 69 73 69, Mark Tullo (Chi) 68 70 72 75, Oscar Stark (Swe) 73 70 71 71, Matt Ford 70 69 71 75, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 70 70 75 70, Moritz Lampert (Ger) 71 70 72 72, Trevor Fisher Jnr (Rsa) 69 69 78 69

286 (a) Adrian Meronk (Pol) 71 72 71 72, Damien Perrier (Fra) 70 72 74 70,Gary Hurley 71 69 71 75, Pedro Figueiredo (Por) 75 68 72 71, Jens Dantorp (Swe) 69 73 71 73, Jamie Rutherford 67 68 75 76

287 Robert Coles 70 69 75 73, Steven Brown 73 69 72 73, Ben Eccles (Aus) 72 71 74 70, David Drysdale 70 72 73 72, Filip Mruzek (Cze) 68 72 79 68

288 James Allan 68 72 74 74, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 73 70 71 74, Dominic Foos (Ger) 72 69 74 73, Andrea Pavan (Ita) 72 71 75 70, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 75 67 72 74, Johan Edfors (Swe) 73 68 74 73

289 Wil Besseling (Ned) 67 73 76 73, Jaco Ahlers (Rsa) 71 70 72 76, Paul Lawrie 72 70 73 74, Grant Forrest 70 67 76 76, Simon Khan 73 70 72 74

290 Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 75 67 78 70, Daniel Fox (Aus) 71 72 76 71, Rhys Davies 69 72 76 73, Jack Senior 70 72 76 72

291 Duncan Stewart 74 69 77 71, Jeff Winther (Den) 71 71 72 77, Ricardo Santos (Por) 71 69 74 77, Nick Cullen (Aus) 71 72 75 73

292 Paul Maddy 67 72 76 77

294 Borja Virto (Spa) 70 73 76 75

Day three report


England's Matt Wallace remained on course to claim a first European Tour title despite seeing his lead cut heading into the final day of the Open de Portugal.

Wallace, who carded 10 birdies in a flawless opening 63 at Morgado Golf Resort, enjoyed a five-shot advantage at halfway after completing an error-free 66 when the delayed second round was completed on Saturday.

However, the 27-year-old Londoner could only manage a level-par 73 in round three to finish the day 17 under par, three shots ahead of Germany's Sebastian Heisele, who returned a 71.

England's Sam Walker sat four shots off the lead after a third round of 68, with France's Matthieu Pavon another stroke back on 12 under.

Wallace, who won five tournaments in succession on the Alps Tour last year and six times in total, said: "It wasn't very good today, I lost a bit of rhythm out there and just struggled really to get it round.

"I'd have liked to have been a couple better and that would have given me more of a cushion going into tomorrow. It is what it is and I'm going to prepare as well as I can for tomorrow.

"It could have been much worse. I battled really hard and made some good putts to save some pars. Hopefully I can put as much effort in tomorrow as I did today and play a bit better and hopefully I'll be here tomorrow with the trophy.

"This week is the best I've probably played ever so I'm going to take that confidence into tomorrow. It is big but I try and dumb it down as much as possible - it's just golf and I'm just going to go and give it my best."

Heisele, who finished 28th on the Challenge Tour last season, hopes a fast start can apply some pressure to the leader.

"I didn't play as well as I did for the first two days, so I'll need something low tomorrow," he said. "Matt is just going to keep doing his thing. I'll try to get a few shots back tomorrow, early obviously to build some pressure, and take it from there."

Day two report


England's Matt Wallace extended his lead to five shots in the weather-affected Open de Portugal at Morgado Golf Resort on Friday.

Wallace, who carded 10 birdies in a flawless opening 63, added five more in the first 12 holes of his second round before play was suspended due to darkness, a knock-on effect of the time lost due Thursday's thunderstorms.

The 27-year-old Londoner, who won five tournaments in succession on the Alps Tour last season and six times in total, started on the back nine and picked up shots on the 10th, 12th, 13th and 16th to reach the turn in 33.

Further birdies on the first and third took Wallace to 16 under par and five ahead of Germany's Sebastian Heisele, who followed his opening 64 by carding three birdies and a bogey in 12 holes on day two.

England's Ashley Chesters and France's Matthieu Pavon had set the clubhouse target on nine under after rounds of 71 and 69 respectively.

Pavon was one under par after nine holes when the first round was suspended and when play resumed at 0830 local time on Friday, he made four birdies on the back nine to post a bogey-free 68.

The 24-year-old was soon back out on the course and carded six birdies and two bogeys in round two, while Chesters had an eagle, four birdies and four bogeys in his 71.

"I had a bit of momentum this afternoon," Pavon said. "I played very solid to finish round one this morning, which gave me confidence going into round two straight afterwards and I managed to make a few birdies straight away.

"My game has been a little up and down over the two days but my short game has been pretty good, so that has helped a lot."

Day one report


England's Matt Wallace fired a stunning 10-under-par 63 to set a daunting clubhouse target before bad weather brought play to an early end on day one of the Open de Portugal.

Wallace carded 10 birdies and no bogeys at Morgado Golf Resort to finish a shot ahead of Germany's Sebastian Heisele, who produced an eagle, nine birdies and two bogeys in his 64.

American Julian Suri and Englishmen Paul Maddy and Jamie Rutherford were two shots further back on six under par, with former Open champion Paul Lawrie and home favourite Ricardo Gouveia on one under.

Wallace, who won six Alps Tour events last season to earn his Challenge Tour card, carded four birdies on the front nine and followed another on the 10th with five in a row from the 12th.

"It was a fantastic round really," the 27-year-old Londoner said. "It wasn't looking great at the start when the rain came in 10 minutes before my tee time. Then it stopped just as we got on to the tee, so that was kind of a good omen.

"It was the old cliche. I just took one shot at a time and we had a really good day out there. Everything was working well to be honest. Everything clicked.

"I made two good par saves on the front nine to keep the momentum going. After that every hole was at least a birdie chance, so it was a really good day.

"It's been a continuation of a good start to the season. I've enjoyed it, I love coming out here and playing and hopefully we can keep this going for the next three days."

Former Masters champion Mike Weir, who is currently ranked 1,908th in the world after failing to make a halfway cut since November 2014, was level par after three holes before play was suspended.