Fixtures/Results

During a week of horrendous wet and stormy weather Devon's top Professionals were able to play at Yelverton Golf Club this Thursday.

The event was sponsored by Cobra Golf (www.cobragolf.co.uk) and particular thanks are due to their popular South West rep Mike Adams. Mike who retires at the end of this season is an excellent golfer himself and a member at Ferndown where he plans to play much more golf in the coming years.

The golf club pulled out all the stops to get the course in playable condition and it is testament to the quality of the work done at the club over the past few years that they could even consider hosting a pro event after so much rain.

A big thanks to club secretary Stuart Barnes and the greenkeeping team at Yelverton for all their efforts on the day. The pros were desperate for some serious competition after the long Christmas break.

Conditions on the day meant that scoring was never going to be easy. It was remarkable therefore that three players managed to break par. Winning score on the day was Fingle Glen's tournament professional Paul Hendriksen. Paul had seven birdies in his round of 68. He opened brightly with birdies at holes 3, 5 and 6. He followed this with another birdie on the ninth and completed the back nine with further birdies on 11, 14 and 17.

Paul was a member at Yelverton golf club while studying for his business management degree at Plymouth University for three years, it is a course he really enjoys playing and suits his accurate iron play. His best shots of the day were a pair of three woods into the teeth of the wind at the long par fours seven and thirteen. These shots helped him secure pars where many other pros were dropping shots.

He has been working hard this year on his fitness and has a program designed to increase his strength, flexibility and balance. Paul also combines his golf with a part time role as secretary at Dinnaton Golf Club and is in fact planning to move to the Plymouth area in the coming months. He has been practicing at Plymouth driving range and credits much of his recent good form to using their excellent short game facilities.

In second place was the ever consistent Chris Gill from Exeter. Chris who attempted to regain his Asian Tour card earlier in the winter is always a good tough weather player. His reliable and impressive long game allied to his stocky frame mean he is less affected in the wind. He returned a two under par 69.

In third place was the talented Downes Crediton professional Barry Austin. Barry returned a score of one under par 70 ten shots outside his course record score of 60 set a few years ago in somewhat different weather conditions !

The race for the order of merit this season continues to be a incredibly close contest. Long time leader Andy Norman from North Devon has now been overtaken by the West Region`s number one player Sean Mason (Teign Valley) but by the narrowest of margins, just 0.7 of a point separate the pair and even at this stage in the season with five events remaining anyone down to 8th in the order of merit table must consider that they have a chance of claiming top spot this season.

Devon PGA captain Ashley Moon thanked everybody at Yelverton particularly the greenkeeping team for allowing the pros to compete at one of their favourite golf courses.