Agony as O'Donovan misses Volvo China Open start by one stroke

Ireland’s Brian O’Donovan narrowly missed out on a place at the Volvo China Open after the two-day International Qualifying event in Guangzhou. Photo: Richard Castka

Ireland’s Brian O’Donovan agonisingly missed out on a place in the 2019 Volvo China Open by just one shot.

He carded a two-under 68 in the second round to finish in a three-way tie for fourth place on five-under 135 at the Guangzhou Nansha International Qualifying event at Nansha Golf Club.

With the top three guaranteed a place in the European Tour-sanctioned tournament in May, the 31-year-old from Cork knew a solid round would see him through after opening with a three-under 67 over the Valley Course.

But despite making seven birdies on day two, O’Donovan was forced to watch from the clubhouse as Chien Po Lee (-10), Andreas Gronkvist (-8) and Lu Sen Lien  (-6) secured the coveted invites to the RMB 20 million Volvo China Open.   

Brian O’Donovan. Photo: Richard Castka

“A pretty good round but again too many little mistakes,” he said. “I doubled the second to be plus-two after two but then had four birdies to go two-under after nine. I’ve made 14 birdies over two days, which is a ridiculous amount but that’s the way it is at times. There was far more good than bad out there.

“I tend to be quite an aggressive player so I kind of accept I’m going to pick up bogeys but it’s never nice when it happens.

“I putted well over the two days and I was quite relaxed as I didn’t have anything to lose. I played aggressively and only made two bad swings over 36 holes but unfortunately, they cost me shots - that’s golf. It happens.”

After narrowly missing out, O’Donovan will go back to his day job in the morning as teaching pro at Mission Hills Shenzhen. 

“It would have been nice to qualify for the Volvo China Open in Shenzhen but maybe I’ll take the Academy students up there during tournament week instead,” he added.

Guangzhou International Qualifying Final Scores after 36 holes

*-10 (130) Chieh Po Lee (Chinese Taipei)

*-8 (132) Andreas Gronkvist (Sweden)

*-6 (134) Lu Sen Lien (Chinese Taipei)

-5 (135) Brian O’Donovan (Ireland)

-5 (135) David Shen (Chinese Taipei)

-5 (135) Seung Jae Maeng (USA

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