21/04/2022
Ben Amor has given himself an excellent chance of becoming one of the youngest winners of the Carlsberg Marston’s Cornish Festival by taming Trevose, a course that has proved the nemesis for many experienced golfers down the years.
The Year Three PGA Trainee, who represents Marlborough Golf Club, negotiated the stage for the Farmfoods European Legends Links Championship in June as though it was his own personal playground.
Aided by a lack of wind that can turn the course flanked by the Atlantic on Cornwall’s north coast into a card-wrecking monster, Amor made golfing hay while the sun shone.
His bogey-free seven-under par round of 65 featured five birdies and an eagle at the par-five fifth and is the best posted by any of the 400-plus competitors at the Festival’s three venues: Trevose, The Point at Polzeath and St Enodoc.
More pertinently it means the former Carris Trophy winner goes into his final round at The Point level on nine-under with Matt Cort, the highly experienced three-time winner of the PGA Assistants’ Championship.
Cort, joint-leader of the tournament with Barry Austin after round one, also had a good day. He negotiated St Enodoc, arguably the most miserly of the trio of venues in terms of yielding birdies, in four-under.
Cort, a member of the victorious 2017 PGA Cup team who represents Beedles Lake in Leicestershire, will finish his challenge for the £2,700 winner’s cheque at Trevose.
Austin, meanwhile, occupies third place a shot adrift of Amor and Cort on eight-under after a three-under par round at The Point that finally came alive towards the end with birdies at 15, 17 and 18.
He will complete his tournament at St Enodoc while Ashley Mansell will sign off at Trevose after a three-under par negotiation of St Enodoc took him to seven-under and two shots off the pace.
In the team event contested by more than a 100 comprising a PGA pro and three amateurs, Cort’s individual performances are reflected in him plus Lorne Smith, Dean Briggs and Arthur Fisher amassing 187 Stableford points to lead the competition by seven.
CLICK HERE for a full list of individual scores
CLICK HERE for the full list of team scores