Adam holds nerve at Marston’s Beer Trainees Championship

Adam Winwood (Brentwood Park Golf Range) defied adverse weather at the Marston’s Beer East Trainees Championship to notch his first professional victory.

With much of England being hit by heavy rainfall, Bishop’s Stortford – the venue for the tournament – didn’t escape. As a result, the event was reduced from 36 to 18 holes.

Winwood was forced off twice during his round but kept his focus to secure a one-shot victory, thanks to a one-under-par 70.

The Eastern Michigan University-educated 28-year-old made a fast start before the rains came. He eagled the par-five third hole and followed that with a birdie at the short fourth. There was a further gain, too, at the sixth hole.

Once the weather turned for the worse, Winwood had to dig deep to protect his score. Just after midday, play was suspended and he was lying three-under through 12 holes.

There was a brief return to the course in the middle of the afternoon before the players were once more called. Back out again in the early-evening gloom, Winwood did enough to triumph from a group of four players – James Tinworth (Marriott Hanbury Manor), David Salisbury (Three Rivers), Nicholas Pateman (Pinner Hill), Tom Clements (Eaton).

Winwood, who is preparing for the second year of his PGA Foundation degree, said: “It is a really big result – my first professional win – and I was very pleased to get it done. I managed to hold my nerve over the last few holes.”

An example of Winwood’s bottle under pressure came at the par-three 17th. Coming off a three-putt for bogey at the long par-four 16th, he had hit – in his words – “a really poor tee-shot” at the penultimate hole.

He explained: “I was in the left trap and didn’t hit a great bunker shot but kind of knew I had about 15 feet up the hill to save my par. I made a really nice putt, which allowed me to free up and play for my par down the 18th.”

Sure enough, Winwood found the fairway on the last before firing a 6-iron onto the green and duly two-putting from 30 feet for what would turn out to be the win.

He said: “I hope this will give me the confidence to go out and play well. All year, I’ve felt that my game has been pretty close but my short game hasn’t been good enough.

“So, I’ve always felt that if I could get it together on the same day i could definitely compete. Hopefully, I can put myself in a position to win again.”