Steven Bowditch off to a flyer

2014 Valero Texas Open winner Steve Bowditch started the new tour season with a bang.
2014 Valero Texas Open winner Steve Bowditch started the new tour season with a bang.

STEVEN BOWDITCH had a great start to the US PGA Tour season with a runner up finish at the 2014 Frys.com Open in California.

Bowditch had back to back 5-under 67’s on the weekend at the Silverado Country Club in Napa to finish two strokes behind South Korea’s Sang-Moon Bae (73), who recorded his second tour victory.

Bowditch starting the final round eight shots from the lead and shot a blistering five-under-par back nine of 31, including three birdies and an eagle on the 16th.

The 31 year old logged his breakthrough victory on the tour at the Texas Open in March and hopefully more good stuff is in store for the Newcastle born golfer.

Meanwhile tour veteran Robert Allenby also had a successful weekend, signing for a 2-under 70 final round to finish tied for eighth, the best result for the four-time tour winner since 2012.

The 43-year-old Allenby has had a lean few years. He used a one-off career earnings exemption to play on the tour last season and was the 125th and last player into the playoffs for the Fedex Cup.

But maybe the best performance of the week was by Jarrod Lyle, who declared his return to big time golf after two years and a second bout with cancer a big success.

“To come here without a tournament to play, and then get through on the Monday (qualifier) and make the cut and play reasonable golf for four days, I couldn’t ask for anything better,” he said. “It’s something to build on for the rest of the year.”

Lyle (70) finished at 5-under, 10 behind the winner, along with Aaron Baddeley (70) tied for 31st. Cameron Percy (73), in his first tour outing since regaining his tour card, finished on 6-under at T26.

Frys.com Open Leaderboard

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