Ruthless Ruth extends advantage in the English PGA Championship

19/07/2023

James Ruth remains a strong favourite to successfully defend his English PGA Championship title on what was another exhilarating day of golf at Bowood Hotel, Spa & Golf Resort.

Ruth wasn’t able to repeat the course record performance of 61 he shot on the opening day, but instead he showed bags of resilience on what proved to be an inconsistent day of scoring for the Devon-based pro.

It looked early on as though Ruth was going to all but claim the championship title today after racing to three-under-par through his first six holes of the day, putting the 38-year-old 11 shots clear of his nearest rival.

But trouble soon followed as Ruth picked up a double bogey at 16 and he dropped another shot at 18 leaving him level par at the turn. Ruth went on to card 71 (-1) for his second round, holing three birdies and two bogeys on the back nine, putting him five clear of second-place Matthew cort heading into Thursday’s final round.

“I started off great,” said Ruth. “I was three-under-par through the first six holes and I was playing pretty solid. But then I got a really tough lie on the 16^th (started on hole 10) on the down slope and basically just hit a shank into an awful lie. I only just managed to make double there sand then three-putted 18 to go in level at the turn. It threw me for a little bit for a few holes.

“I was a bit up and down on the back nine, but I was pleased to finish under par. There was just not mistakes yesterday compared to today. Yesterday was probably the best round I’ve ever had, I still played okay today and I’m still in the lead heading into the final round which is nice. I enjoy leading so I’ve just got to keep going, get my head down and keep moving forward.”

Hot on Ruth’s heels will be 2018 English PGA Championship winner Cort. The Beedles Lake Golf Club pro followed his opening round 68 with an impressive 69 to ensure he is in with a shout adding another national title to his name for the second time in his career.

Cort said: “I think the pressure is on him(Ruth) to close out the tournament. He shot 61 on Tuesday but he’s not had a great round today, only shooting 71 which is one-under-par. There’s five shots in it now as opposed to seven.

“It’s always tough at these events to close out the win so it’s really up to him. If he plays nice and shoots a couple under then it will probably be too much for the rest of us. But I’ll give it a go, try and put some pressure on him early and see what he does.”

Elsewhere, the 12^th hole proved to be a cause for celebration for two PGA Professionals this afternoon, with both Tim Hodson and Matthew Fieldsend hitting hole-in-ones.

Hodson (pictured) commented: “I hit a really nice shot in which I thought was heading to the middle of the green and it went past the flag. We had some spectators watching and they ran out to give us a celebration! I didn’t see it go in but I’m very happy!

“I had already put my club in my bag and started wandering up – I didn’t even know the ball had gone into the hole! It’s a special moment that you don’t get very often so you’ve got to celebrate.”

The top performer of the day proved to be Harry Casey and what a difference 24 hours made for his score this week. After shooting 77 on Tuesday, Casey bounced back sensationally, carding six-under-par (66) to move him to one-under-par for his round.