Fixtures/Results

Yelverton Golf Club
Friday 19th September

Professional Individual
First Place
65- Neil Holman (Torbay Driving Range)
Second Place
66- Chris Gill (Exeter G & CC)
Third Place
67- Barry Austin (Downes Crediton)
Fourth Equal
68- Iain Parker (Royal North Devon)
68- Dominic Rehaag (Tavistock)
Sixth Place
69- Ashley Moon (Okehampton)

Team Scores

-18 Barry Austin (Downes Crediton)
Curtis Edwards, Issac Greenwood, Steve Sloman
-17 Ashley Moon (Okehampton)
Martin Moon, Neville Richards, Paul Hendy
-15 Neil Holman (Torbay Driving Range)
Bill Hammett, Mike Lewis, Sam Ruby
-15 Dan Wood (Royal North Devon)
Chris McCarthy, Simon McCarthy, John Baker
-15 Ian Marshall (Plymouth Golf Centre)
John Spry, Julian Partridge, Jonathan Philpotts

Captain Iain Parker with
winning Pro Neil Holman

Barry Austin with his winning team

On one of the best days of the summer this year 35 teams gathered from all over Devon for the annual Yelverton Pro Am. The event has established itself over the last ten years as one of the best in the county. Organised superbly by Head Professional Tim McSherry this years event was sponsored by, Plumb Centre, Wolferstans Solicitors and Foot + Anstys Accountants.

The golf course was in its usual superb condition and the greens were running very true. There was more grass on the fairways than for many years, and they almost had a lush parkland feel to them. New greenkeeper George Pitts has had to contend with some severe weather and this has almost provided unprecedented growth. This combination provided ideal scoring conditions which the professionals took full advantage of.

Winning pro score on the day was a superb 6 under par 65 from Torbay Driving Range Pro, the experienced Neil Holman. Neil who plays regularly on the moorland course in the South West Foursomes, started in spectacular fashion. He hit a four iron to within 1 foot of the hole for an opening birdie 2. This set him off in just the right fashion, and he continued to play his usual brand of strategic golf. He was particularly pleased with his birdie three on the testing dog leg 16th hole, after a rescue club finished directly behind the tree in the middle of the fairway, he expertly cut a 5 iron from 167 yards round the tree, to 15 feet and calmly rolled in the putt. Neil was absolutely delighted to win and put some of his good form down to a new `bushnell range finder` which gives him a perfect yardage on his approach shots. Another advantage of the range finder is that it has considerably speeded up Neil's pace of play on the course. He feels it has cut 15 to 20 minutes off an average round.

Not only is Neil one of the best golfers in Devon, he recently won a `South West Table Football Tournament` held recently in the New Forest. Neil commented "not many of the other pros knew I competed regularly in another sport, but it has become in recent years one of my main hobbies. I would say I am probably about a 2 handicap."

In second place with a score of 66 was Exeter's in form Chris Gill, who has just returned from a successful first stage at European Tour Qualifying School. Chris had to make a quick getaway as he was preparing for his wedding the following day, surely a case of all good things coming together at this busy period in his life.

In third place on 67 was Yelverton course record holder Barry Austin, who has also been playing great golf in the last month. His course record 60 set some years ago is a score which is unlikely to beaten for many years.

Tied in fourth place on 68 were Dominic Rehaag (Tavistock) and Iain Parker (Royal North Devon).

In the team competition Barry Austin brought home the winning team on 18 under par. His team included Curtis Edwards, Issac Greenwood and Steve Sloman.

Devon PGA Captain Iain Parker thanked captain John May and everybody who had helped make the day so successful and looked forward to returning next season.