Matt Ohsrine (-11) has found his first professional victory in Óbidos. A triumph that no one saw coming. A 29-year-old American, who celebrated his birthday yesterday and was born in Baltimore, had accumulated 40 tournaments valid for the world ranking in his career before this week. He had only achieved a couple of top 10s, a fifth place in the Korn Ferry Tour in 2021 and a seventh that same year in the PGA Tour Americas. That’s about it.
In 2024 he had ten tournaments of the Challenge Tour, a circuit he accessed after reaching the final of the DP World Tour School last year and missing the cut. His best result in ten tournaments had been a 30th in India. He was ranked 164th in the Road to Mallorca and 1,792 in the world ranking. Definitely, his name didn’t even appear in the bets to win the Portugal Open. But he has won it. That’s golf.
Ohsrine has had a great week with four rounds of 70, 65, 69 and 69 strokes, but when it comes down to it, it must be said that he has found collaboration to take the victory. The Italian Stefano Mazzoli (-10) arrived with -11 with two holes to go and made a bogey on the 17th. Meanwhile, the young South African Robin Williams (-8), who is finding his first victory more difficult than expected, hit his ball on the tee of the 18th, par 5, with a score of -11 and made a triple bogey.
Ohsrine was watching everything from behind, as he had come out in the star match, a peculiar star match as the same order as the third round was maintained to save time, after the delays accumulated by the fog during the week. His rivals were falling, starting with his match partners, Benjamin Hebert (-7) and Ryan Lumsden (PAR), who scored +1 and +4 on the day respectively. He held on. He made five birdies, taking advantage of the three par 5s and two bogeys and finished with five consecutive pars. A test of endurance.
With this victory, Ohsrine secures his Challenge Tour card for next year, but he still has a long way to go to aspire to one of the twenty cards of the DP World Tour. From that point of view, the golfers who are involved in that fight and who have not had a good week, celebrate his victory. Let’s say it doesn’t do much harm.
So, in the Road to Mallorca there will not be big movements. The big beneficiary will be the Finnish Oliver Lindell, who finished sixth and will get into the top 20. As for the Spaniards, Ángel Ayora and Joel Moscatel remain comfortably in the card positions among the top ten.
Precisely, speaking of the Armada, the week in Portugal has been disastrous. Only Lucas Vacarisas (+1) made the cut and finished in 56th place with a final round of 72 strokes. He still needs a push to get into the top 45 who will play the Mallorca Final. He is not far away.
