Clayton claims crown at Waterlooville

Hankley Common’s Ben Clayton had an adventurous round of 68 to win the Waterlooville Pro-Am title and take home £1,000.

Commenting afterwards, he said: “Waterlooville’s always a cracking day’s golf, and the change in the weather came as a relief while making things more challenging. I made a couple of errors, but managed to get away with them to pick up one of the schedule’s larger cheques!”

His round wasn’t without high drama. After five pars he eagled the sixth and seemed set for a low score, but gave it all back at the very next hole with a double bogey at the short par three 7th.

Undeterred, he birdied the ninth to stay in the race, and then made the strongest of any of the finishes in a 32 strong field with birdies at the 15th, 16th and 18th for a back nine of 33 and a final score of 68.

Clayton finished two strokes ahead of a group of four other players, namely Billingbear Park’s Gregg Blainey, Portsmouth Golf Centre’s Rob Edwards, one of 2018’s multiple winners from Richings Park, Chris Rodgers, and Darren Walkley.

Of these Blainey had the most to reflect on, reaching the turn in a very clean and fault-free  three-under, only to bogey the 10th and then double the 12th. Reversing his fortunes, Blainey eagled the 13th – clearly lucky for some – but then bogeyed the 14th and the 16th, before getting things back on track with two birdies down the last two holes.

Chilworth’s Mark Dawe was the PGA Pro who inspired his amateurs the most, outclassing the rest of the field by three clear strokes.