Devon Features

Cornwall v Devon

Friday 24th October 2008
West Cornwall Golf Club

Foursomes
Gill/Hendriksen beat Pitts/Broadway 1up
Holman/Mason lost to O'Hanlon/Rowe 4/3
Goodey/Austin lost to Nash/Slater 3/1
Parker/Eastwood beat Turpin/Williams 2/1
Norman/Cook lost to Richards 6/5

Cornwall 3 - 2 Devon

Singles
Chris Gill beat Richard O'Hanlon 3/2
Paul Hendriksen beat Tony Nash 3/2
Sean Mason beat Grant Slater 2/1
Barry Austin beat Paul Turpin 2/1
Neil Holman beat Jason Broadway 1up
Robin Goodey beat Nick Williams 1up
Iain Parker halved with Mark Rowe A/S
Nick Cook beat Tony Pitts 3/2
Andy Norman lost to Scott Richards 2/1
Laura Eastwood beat Maria Tulley 4/3

Final Result
Cornwall 4.5 - 10.5 Devon

The Victorious Devon Team

Captain Iain Parker

The annual Ryder Cup style match between the top professionals from Devon against their old adversaries Cornwall, took place last Friday 24th at Cornwall's oldest and most historic golf course West Cornwall.

The course was presented in superb condition and Cornish captain Scott Richards made sure the course was set up to favour the home team. Devon fielded one of their strongest teams for many years, with all the top players from the order of merit, representing the County. Cornwall who have not won for nearly a decade were desperate to find a winning formula.

In the morning foursomes matches, things seemed to be going Cornwall's way. West Cornwall although relatively short really needs good local knowledge to produce low scoring. Many of the Devon players had not played the links before, and this could have perhaps led to some uncertainty over shot selection.

In the top foursomes match, Exeter's Chris Gill partnered Fingle Glen's Paul Hendriksen and after a very close match, it was left to Paul to hole a ten foot birdie putt on the last hole to secure the first point for Devon.

In the second match out Teign Valley's Sean Mason and Torbay Driving Range's Neil Holman ran into two opponents in top form. They eventually lost 4&3 with their opponents five under par for their round.

Robin Goodey and Barry Austin were slightly disappointed with their play and they lost their match by 3 and 1 against two of Cornwall's strongest players. Devon Captain Iain Parker, and making a historic, and ground breaking first appearance for a lady, Laura Eastwood, won 2 & 1 with some excellent play around the greens.

Norman and Cook in the last match out lost out to Cornwall captain Scott Richards playing on the course where he grew up as boy. This left the score 3/2 in Cornwall's favour.

After lunch, Devon with the advantage of having worked out their course strategy, took charge of the match. The first six matches all swung Devon's way, and with some great golf being played by some of the best golfers in the West of England, Cornwall felt the match slipping from their grasp. As one match after another was closed out in Devon's favour it became a matter of damage limitation, but even when they looked like winning a singles point, Devon captain Parker won the last two holes, to half his match with Carlyon Bay's Mark Rowe.

Cornwall managed only one singles victory, and the result of the singles 8 1/2 to 1 1/2 tells it's own story.

Devon captain Iain Parker commented "Once the guys had been round the course in the morning, I was confident that our best players would come up with the goods at the top of the order, but to win the first six matches was really a great performance." He added "As pro's we don't get the chance to play any team golf, so this is a match we look forward to all year, it`s our `Ryder Cup`, and competition through our winter order of merit to make the team is very strong. Nobody wants to miss out, and this year the team spirit was better than ever, to keep our great run of six consecutive victories going, was important to us all."

Devon secretary Robin Goodey said "we could now put out two strong teams, with some great young players coming through, and this winter, competition to make the team will be tougher than ever." He added "Next year the matches will be back in Devon and all the players will be going for a magnificent seven."

Devon`s star players Chris Gill and Paul Hendrksen used the day as final preperation for their visit to stage two of tour school next week, and they said "It was great to be back representing the County, we have not played a match like this since our amauter days and it felt just like old times, there is nothing better than being on a winning team"

Devon Captain Iain Parker thanked everybody at West Cornwall for hosting the match, and looked forward to next season, when we will be trying for the `magnificent seven`.