A bright and breezy day was the setting for the CAGU B Team’s final league match of the 2010 season against Leicestershire & Rutland at Royston G.C. The opposition were in good form with three wins and a draw during their campaign so far and were on the brink of winning the league title with a victory in this final encounter. Therefore, we were under no allusion about the difficulty of the task that lay ahead, and after a very disappointing heavy defeat in the previous match, a much changed side set forth on a firm and testing Royston layout with some extremely tough pin positions! 

Yesterday the County Open at Ely City Golf Club had to be delayed by 30 minutes
because of a flash storm at 5 00am. This delay enabled the green staff to repair
damage done to bunkers and allow time for standing water on the greens to
recede.

When play finally started the sun was out and the course looked in excellent
condition as reflected in some of the 1st round scores.

An early score of 69 by home club member Chris Nixon set the pace, closely
followed by Saffron Walden's club champion, Tom Duggan. He was in an impressive
three ball with partners Adam Pike  and professional Jason Boast of the TP Golf
centre shooting 71 and 72 respectively.


The leading professionals after round 1 were Ben Kerr of Walden and Craig Thorburn of Ramsey on 71 with Paul Maddy of Gogs and Boast a shot behind. Defending champion Richard Beadles of Royal Worlington was a further shot back on 73.

In the afternoon round Nixon reached the 18th tee 2 under for the round needing
a par for another excellent round of 70. We all know that you need a little bit
of luck to win a golf tournament and Chris saved his until the very end when he
saw his second shot saved from going out of bounds into the car park by a branch
of a tree. He failed to chip and putt for his par and finished on 71 for a fine
score of 140 which was going to be difficult to beat.

In the end, it was another amateur County player Adam Pike, playing in the last
group out on the course who came in with a fine round of 69 to tie Nixon on 140.

This meant a 4 hole play off on holes 1, 11, 15 & 18. Nixon went into an early
lead when Pike made a bogey at the first hole. It remained the same until the
18th hole where Nixon once again made bogey. This meant sudden death around the
same 4 holes as the light was fading fast. Pars at the 1st and then Pike missed
the green at hole 11 and after chipping up to six feet just failed to make the
putt leaving Chris Nixon with his first County title.

It is interesting to note that County Champion Lee Yearn of the home club,
unable to play because he was at a wedding, had tipped Nixon to win earlier in
the week after he had played extremely well in a number of recent club medals.

It was a great day for Chris as he also when the newly introduced County
Handicap Cup, very kindly donated by John Durman, the sponsor of the event.

The leading professionals were James Mynott of the home club with a fine 67 in
the 2nd round, and Richard Beadles of Royal Worlington with 36 hole totals of
142.

Many thanks to John Durman of the LInks Golf Club for his continuing support of
this important event. John, who plays for the County Seniors team and has
managed to play in this event for the past 2 years, has now sponsored the County
Open for 5 years.

A special thanks to the Ely City golf club for hosting the event. The course
condition as already mentioned was a credit to the club.

 
Photography's - John Bufton

Next years County Open is at the Bourn Golf Club on the 21st August.