PGA of Germany Professional, Philipp Mejow, has got his season off to a stunning start, winning the 2018 Messinia Pro-Am at Costa Navarino in Greece after a hotly contested playoff win.
Having led after the first round, Mejow found himself two shots behind PGA of Israel Professional, Asaf Cohen, at the beginning of the final round.
After 18 holes that difference had been cancelled out after Mejow’s one-under par 70 and Cohen’s one-over 72 on The Dunes Course for a seven-under par total (205). This led to a playoff that was ultimately won by Mejow with a birdie at the first time of asking on the par-five 18th hole.
“I am so happy and proud because I put in a lot of work in the winter,” said Mejow. “It was a long time ago when I won my last tournament, so I’m really happy to begin the season like this. I was happy to get into the playoff because I was second at the start of the day, and I was actually really confident that I could win it. I will try to be back next year because Costa Navarino is one of the most beautiful places I know.”
Despite losing out on the playoff, Cohen was hugely positive about his Messinia Pro-Am experience: “I can say I am very happy – I played good golf all week, the conditions of course were great, and you know sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. Philipp played amazing…he’s a good guy and I am very happy for him.”
Third place was shared between the PGA of Greece’s Christos Nikopoulos and the PGA of Great Britain & Ireland’s Stuart Boyle. Despite moving back in the scoring with a three-over 74, Nikopoulos secured his third place position at two-under par (210), whilst Boyle kept things steady with a level par 71 to advance one position up the leaderboard.
The 36-hole Team Pro-Am event was won by the Team of PGA of Great Britain & Ireland Professional, Stuart Boyle, and amateurs Achilles Constantakopoulos, Georgios Kyvernitis, and Harris Papadopoulos.
A second round 85 points (-13) from the Team, combined with their first round outstanding total of 94 points, gave a commanding total of 179 points (-35).
Two teams tied for second place, each totalling 164 points (-20) – Gordon Brand Jr (PGA of GB&I) joined by singers Keith Duffy & Brian McFadden from BoyZone and Westlife respectively, along with Scottish Rugby legend, Thom Evans; and Asaf Cohen and his amateurs, Yehuda Levi, Yechzkel Mageh, Ycav Shehhav.
The final round Team Pro-Am on The Dunes Course was won by Team Reiter of Gunther Ausserdorfer, Franz Pichler, and Gottfried Traintinger, and their Professional, Bernhard Reiter (PGA of Austria) with 90 points (-18). Over on The Bay Course it was the PGA of Greece’s Evgenios Papadopoulos and amateurs Stamatios Chourdakis, Frank Montaque and Ulf Skovliwho took the honours with 80 points (-8).
For Full Final Scores Visit http://eur.pe/2018Messinia
For more information visit the Tournament Hub Page (http://eur.pe/2018Messinia) and messiniaproam.costanavarino.com, follow @PGAsofEurope on Twitter and search the hashtag ‘#MessiniaProAm’, or like the Confederation of Professional Golf Facebook Page.
Find out more about Costa Navarino at www.costanavarino.com.
