All Hayling Osborn’s seven under 64

David Osborn (West Hill) shot one of his best rounds for some time to win the Hayling Pro-Am with a seven-under-par 64.

Collecting his £1,000 cheque, Osborn bested runner up Christopher Rodgers’ 66 by two shots, while Matthew Rice (Purley Downs) picked up third place with a 67.

In a complete contrast with the dreadful weather conditions at Royal Blackheath GC the day before, the Hayling layout was about as benign as it could get, with warm temperatures and just a one club breeze to challenge the players, and relatively receptive greens holding the approach shots.

But as Osborn put it: “You still have to go out and produce the goods! My driving set up the second shots nicely, all of which except the 17th were pin high.

“Twenty three putts tells you I made the most of the opportunities, even though none of them were at the par fives!”

Osborn opened with a birdie two and made three more in quick succession at the third, fourth and sixth, reaching the turn in four-under-par.

Another birdie at the 10th saw him back in top gear again, and he went on to made birdies at the 12th, 13th and another deuce at the 16th to get to eight-under-par with just two holes left.

He then dropped the only shot of his round at the penultimate hole.

“I pulled my second shot trying to hold it up in the cross wind, but got blindsided instead. I tried to nip it off a bare surface, but fatted it into the bunker from where I got up and down in two more for what was a ‘good’ five!”

Nonetheless, Osborn was delighted with his golf and put his performance down to some hard work over winter under the direction of Clifford Gough (Reigate Heath) and mailing him videos.

“Besides the practice over winter, I regularly send videos of my swing to Cliff and he’ll always reply with the fix I need or a swing thought that gets me back on track. Having Cliff as my online coach 24/7 makes a big difference.”

Osborn has some very low scoring form with a six-under at Hayling two years ago, and rounds of eight-under at Parkstone and nine-under at Farnham in the past.

He’ll now be working on his game for the next Virgin Atlantic PGA South Order of Merit event, the PGA Southern Open Championship at its new home of East Sussex National on June 16th and 17th.