Matt Wallace leads way on good day for English golf across Atlantic

Matt Wallace led the way as English golfers enjoyed a good day across three tours on the other side of the Atlantic.

Matt Wallace poses with the trophy after winning the Corales Puntacana Championship at Puntacana Resort & Club, Corales Golf Course in Punta Cana. Picture: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images.

Wallace landed his maiden PGA Tour win after closing with a 66 to pip Dane Nicolai Hojgaard in the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic.

That success came around the same time as David Skinns also came out on top in the Club Car Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour, the PGA Tour’s feeder circuit, in Georgia.

Then, a few hours later, former AIG Women’s Open champion Georgia Hall came close to making a hat-trick of English triumphs as she was pipped in a play-off by Frenchwoman Celine Boutier in the LPGA Drive On Championship in Arizona.

Wallace recovered from an early bogey to sign off with a total of six birdies, including in a title-winning four in a row from the 13th, as he landed a success worth $684,000. The breakthrough came in his 80th start on the US circuit.

“Feels like I've been out here for years,” he joked. “Getting gray hairs now all the stress I put myself under in golf. Everyone knows I'm a feisty character, but that got me through that today.

“I was calm, felt I was determined, I kind of felt like I had it in me all week. I really felt like I was playing some really good stuff and I felt like I was going to be up there at the end of the week no matter what.

“Didn't get off to the start I kind of wanted today, but Sam (his caddie) was brilliant and we just were so positive. Then the way I finished was exactly how I feel like I can play golf.

“That was awesome, down those final few holes was brilliant and I'm really proud of myself to get through that.”

The 32-year-old played in the Hero Cup earlier in the year and has his sights set on a Ryder Cup debut in Rome later this year after narrowly missing out in 2018.

“I actually spoke to Luke [Donald, the European captain] last week to see if he knew about this golf course and said it was relatively wide off the tee. It wasn't his style of golf as he likes the tight tests.

“I was like ‘yeah, it's kind of similar to myself, I like the really tough golf courses’, but actually when I got here I was like maybe it's a good thing for me at the moment. My driving was really good this week because I probably had that space.”

Having climbed from 175th to 117th in the world rankings, Wallace has now given himself a chance of securing a late spot in The Masters through this week’s Valero Texas Open.

“Hopefully I can do this all over again and then get to The Masters,” he said, smiling. “But if not, I'll be heading home and that will be really nice to take a trophy home. I haven't been able to do that for five years and been wanting to do it for a long time.”

Boutier, meanwhile, landed her third LPGA win after beating Solheim Cup team-mate Hall at the first extra hole after they’d finished locked together 20-under-par at Superstition Mountain Golf & Country Club at Gold Canyon.