Fixtures/Results

The Devon Professionals met at Stover Last week for the 11th round of their winter OOM events. The weather on the day was dry with only light winds. Stover was in excellent all round condition, the head greenkeeper Jason Hampton set the course up very well. The Pros recognise Stover as a test of accuracy, with several tree lined holes and fairly small greens, although relatively short by tour standards, the course never seems easy to get a low score on, and this again, was the case last week.

Winning score on the day was a good 67 by Sidmouth`s Kevin Harper, Kevin has played this winter for the first time in the Devon PGA medals and he has made, as expected, an immediate impact. He commented "I have really enjoyed the Devon Pro events, its like our own club, and reminds me of the great atmosphere we had in the County amateur scene."

He is a former Euro Pro Tour No1, and has played for the last 2 seasons on the European Challenge Tour. Kevin used all his shotmaking skill`s throughout the round, keeping the ball on the short grass with lots of 2 irons from the tee, he started slowly with 2 early dropped shots, but turned things around on the 6th with a birdie, 4 more birdies followed, with 15 greens hit in regulation, he felt that the most pleasing thing was a good touch on the greens.

When you can combine great ball striking, with good touch, you have all the tools to play at a higher level, and although he is enjoying his PGA training, he still feels that with the right breaks he could get to Tour level before he is 30.

In second spot was Okehamptons Ashley Moon, his round of 71 was a mix of great golf and `school boy errors`, a big bonus on the day though was that his score moved him up to second spot in the OOM, again a number of players were not able to play on the day , and this now means that OOM leader Barry Austin cannot now be caught in the final event at Exeter next week. His 72 was enough to secure `Back to Back` wins in the race to be Devon's No1 player in 2010.

The scoring most Pros felt was slightly disappointing apart from the winning effort by Kevin, and unusually 7 players tied for third place on 72, the race for the seniors OOM took a new twist with Cliff Strange tied 3rd he has closed the gap on Neil Holman who had a slightly disappointing day at the office. With the No1 spot already decided, this and the race to make the Devon team, and top 16 matchplay spots look to be the only issues to be resolved.

Devon Captain Rob Goodey, thanked Stover for hosting the event, and presented the club with a cheque to help with their junior work at the club.