Golf: Coceres conquers Catalonia

JOSE COCERES, the 30-year-old Argentinian, made it third time lucky when he won the Heineken Catalonia Open at Pals yesterday.

Coceres, having led France's Jean-Louis Guepy by one shot overnight, showed no signs of nerves as he shot a near-flawless 69 for a four-round aggregate of 275, 13 under par, to win his first European Tour event. Last year, he finished second in both the Italian and Dutch Opens but gained a comfortable victory yesterday, beating Guepy, who shot 71, by three shots and Russell Claydon, 65, by four. The defending champion, Sam Torrance, like Claydon, finished fourth on 280.

HEINEKEN CATALONIA OPEN (Pals, Sp) Leading final scores (GB or Irl unless stated): 275 J Coceres (Arg) 70 69 67 69. 278 J-L Guepy (Fr) 67 68 72 71. 279 R Claydon 72 73 69 65. 280 S Torrance 70 73 70 67. 281 W Riley (Aus) 68 69 74 70; A Hunter 70 72 69 70; G Brand Jnr 70 72 69 70; P Fulke (Swe) 71 71 69 70. 282 M Mouland 70 72 71 69. 283 I Garrido (Sp) 74 73 70 66; F Nobilo (NZ) 71 68 71 73; R Goosen (SA) 74 65 69 75. 284 P Affleck 72 70 71 71; S Bottomley 71 75 67 71; M-A Jimenez (Sp) 70 70 72 72. 285 L Westwood 72 75 70 68; H Clark 69 72 74 70; G J Brand 69 72 70 74.

Order of Merit, Sporting Digest, page 35