Fixtures/Results

Thirty three Devon professionals gathered at a rain and wind lashed Churston golf club this Thursday, for the penultimate winter order of merit event.

During a week of horrendous weather, the professionals were delighted to find Churston not only open, but in superb condition. Head greenkeeper Kelvin Miller and his team pulled out all the stops to allow play to take place.They followed players around the course squeegying greens and moving pins to all the high spots on the greens. This was very much appreciated by everyone who played, and although the course and greens were extremely wet, it is testament to the good work and management in recent years at the club, that the Pros felt they were some of the best greens they had putted on all winter.

Scoring was never going to be easy in these conditions but with several players chasing points in all areas of the order of merit, there was a determined response from the players. Joint winning score on the day came from Chris Gill (Exeter) and Jody Bee, Exminster's `rising star`. Both players recorded 69 (1 under par) which was a really good effort, playing from the clubs blue championship tees. Gill, who seems to find his best form when conditions are at their toughest, struck the ball superbly all day. He commented 'all though I hate playing in waterproofs, I seem to focus and concentrate better when conditions are at their worst.' He recalls several occasions while playing on the Asian Tour when conditions got really tough, he recorded his best finishes. He made a couple of great up and downs one, at the tough first hole, but apart from that it was just solid tee to green golf.

Jody Bee similarly played beautifully from tee to green. He missed only one fairway all day and that by only a club length. This enabled him to fire his accurate irons to the tight pin positions. His win was not his only cause for celebration on the day. He hit the `shot of the winter season` holing his tee shot on the 181 yard par 3 fourth, for his first ever hole-in-one! Word spread like wildfire round the course. Remarkably he had no five iron in his bag and he choked down on a four, and played a beautifully controlled shot which pitched five feet right of the pin and spun with the slope straight into the hole!! The missing five iron head is somewhere in a bush at Saunton where it became dislodged during the Devon Medal last month. Bee has a replacement on it`s way from Titleist, but perhaps he should cancel the order!!

In third place tied with level par 70s were perhaps the two most consistent players of the season, Torbay's Neil Holman and Paul Hendrickson (Fingle Glen). Neil continues to impress with his enthusiasm and desire to improve, even at this stage in his career, he is the ultimate Pro`s Pro, rarely makes unforced errors, and never gives less than 100%. Order of merit leader Paul represented Churston as an amateur and knows the course like the back of his hand. Some of his fellow contenders for top spot in the order of merit were hoping that he would have an extended run in this year's Sunningdale Foursomes and have to miss the days event. This was not to be and importantly with his second place finish, Paul maintained a significant 11 point gap in top spot to the second placed Jody Bee.

With the final event to be played in two weeks time at Stover Golf Club, he now looks a firm favourite to claim number 1 spot in the rankings.

The race to make the top 10 to play in the Ryder Cup style match against Cornwall will also be decided at Stover, and an even closer race is in prospect for the final spots in the Match play championship where nine players are bunched closely in the race for 16th and final spot.

Iain Parker, Devon PGA Captain thanked secretary Simon Bawden and his green keeping team for staging the event, and looked forward to returning again later in the season for their annual pro-am tournament. He commented 'It was a great turnout and as usual some quality golf was played. The Devon Pro scene has never been more competitive and is going from strength to strength`.