Slattery enjoys a new lease of life

Jul 31 2007 by Richard Williamson, Liverpool Daily Post

LEE SLATTERY has catapulted himself firmly back into the hunt to keep his European Tour card.

The Formby Hall player had been languishing in the lower reaches of the European Order of Merit after a run of seven successive missed cuts.

But the Southport player is on the up again after he capped an improved run of results with seventh place at the The Deutsche Bank Players’ Championship of Europe in Germany.

It might have been even better for the 2004 Challenge Tour rankings winner.

Slattery, who revealed he had returned to his original coach Alan Thompson of Heswall five weeks ago, opened with a superb 66,69 start to share the lead at halfway.

He remained in contention with a third round 67 but slipped away on the final day with a 74 for a 12 under par total of 276 as Andres Romero powered to victory on the back of his third round 63 for a 19 under par total.

But Slattery will take great heart from the fact that he is now back in the qualifying positions to keep his card for next year.

He has leapt from 170th to 107th – with the top 115 keeping their Tour status – after picking up 87,660 euros at Gut Kaden in Hamburg.

It is the fifth time he has played all four rounds in the last seven events and there is still plenty at stake over the closing weeks of the season for Slattery to continue his climb up the rankings.

Both Liverpool’s Nick Dougherty and Warrington’s Phillip Archer missed the cut in Germany. Dougherty is now 31st on the Order of Merit (608,919 euros) and Archer 51st (373,499 euros).