Trio rue last hole blip at Coxmoor
02/08/2017
The combination of strong winds and rain gave the skills of the golfers and wares purveyed by the tournament sponsors a thorough examination in the opening round of the Galvin Green PGA Assistants Championship.
Similarly so did the course at Coxmoor Golf Club on the cusp of DH Lawrence country in Nottinghamshire. Not least the final hole, a 501 yard par-four made even more daunting by a headwind.
Unsurprisingly, none of the 120-strong record field striving for a portion of the £27,975 prize fund put up by the Swedish clothing brand negotiated it in anything better than par.
However, had Ireland’s Stephen Barry done just that instead of missing his putt after pitching to within five feet of the hole he would be celebrating sole leadership of the tournament.
Instead his two-under par round of 69 earned him a place in a quintet that, also comprising Bradley Wilkins, Ryan Wallace, Jamie Howarth and Matthew Fieldsend, occupies pole position.
Wallace and Fieldsend also bogeyed the last while Barry, who is attached to the Royal Tara Club, rued another at the par five 15th.
“I had a steady start and was four-under after 14,” he said. “I was going well but I got my yardages wrong after that.
“I bogeyed the 15th then made one of my worst drives of the day at 18. That’s why I needed a good pitch into the green but, having left the ball five feet from the hole, I misread the putt.
“But I’m not unhappy with two-under, especially given the conditions. It was tough out there. There was a heavy mist and the wind made things difficult.”
Steven O’Hara was also left to ponder what might have been after a bogey at the 18th resulted in him finishing a shot adrift of the pacemakers.
O’Hara is the elder brother of Titleist & FootJoy PGA Professional Championship winner, Paul, and he will be hoping what was only his second bogey of the round is not costly in his pursuit of what would be a unique family double.
Speaking of doubles, defending champion Mathew Webb opened up with a level-par round of 71.
And given the recipe for distraction cooked up by the hit and miss golf of Oliver Smith, one of his two playing partners, the round could be construed as a minor triumph.
If ever a round deserved the description ‘rollercoaster’ then Smith produced it. Six-over after two holes, he reached the turn in one-over largely thanks to four birdies on the bounce.
He then executed the shot of the round when his tee shot at the par three 10th skipped into the hole.
Bizarrely the ace marked the first of three occasions when the numeral one was scribbled on Smith’s card.
Two more, representing an 11, filled the space allocated for the score the man from Ashton on Mersey Golf Club posted at the par five 13th en route to a final total of eight-over.
However, with the projected cut currently standing at four-over all is far from lost.
