Phil Archer’s perfect present

Mar 18 2008 by Trevor Peake, Liverpool Daily Post

PHIL ARCHER picked up his biggest cheque of the season for 42,400 euros when he finished in a share of ninth place in the Ballantine’s Championship at the weekend to take his season’s earnings on the European Tour to over 103,000.

It was a nice early birthday present for the Warrington professional, who turned 36 yesterday.

He had four rounds under par in the first tour event ever staged in South Korea to finish with a 12 under total of 276.

Archer opened with a 71 to be in a share of 40th place then added a 70 to comfortably make the halfway cut on 141 in a share of 29th.

A best of the week 67 in the third round took him into joint 14th going into the final day and his closing 68 helped him to his first top ten finish in nine starts so far this season.

Archer, who finished a best ever 29th in the final European Tour order of merit last season with earnings over 900,000 euros helped by three second places, has moved up to 58th in the order this year.

He has not entered for this week’s Madeira Island Open but will be back in action in the Andalucia Open in Spain a week on Thursday.

Nick Dougherty gets another start in America this week in the restricted field for the World Golf’s CA Championship at Doral in Florida.

The 25-year-old Liverpudlian, currently 50th in the world rankings, played in the States last month when he was beaten in the first round of the WGC Accenture Matchplay in Tucson Arizona.

The Forida event is part of his build up to his first ever appearance in the Masters in Augusta from April 10- 13, an invitation he clinched when he finished in a share of seventh place in last year’s US Open.

Doughery won his second European Tour event, the Dunhill Links Championship, in October last year on his way to finishing 11th in the final order of merit with earnings of over £1.4m euros.

He currently stands 44th in this year’s order with 139,145 from six starts.

Also back in action in Madeira this week is Southport’s Lee Slattery, who has played just five times on the tour this year.

Thanks to picking up 92,000 euros for a share of second place in Alfred Dunhill Championship in South Africa in December, his first event back on tour after regaining his card at the tour school, Slattery lies 67th in the order with 94,300 euros banked.

Bromborough’s Paul Waring, who also won his card at tour school soon after switching from the amateur ranks last year, also starts in Madeira.

So far he has played three events in his first year on tour winning a total of 26.430 euros in the first two in South Africa, which puts him 150th in the order at this early stage.