Cort claims second Open Series title at Worsley Park

11/05/2023

There was a familiar look to the top of the leaderboard as Matthew Cort won the season-opening PGA Open Series (North) event at Marriott Worsley Park.

The Manchester venue was the host as the Open Series broke new ground in 2022 and Cort, who tied for third 12 months ago, claimed the victory for his second Open Series success – the 48-year-old from Beedles Lake also won the South event at Cuddington last July. This week he would also tie for fifth in the West event at Mendip Spring.

Cort would shoot rounds of 67-69 to beat Ben Hall by two with Michael Watson and Paul Nessling a further shot back.

“I played at Worsley Park in a Challenge Tour event there in 2008, it’s a good course but the wind was pretty tricky on the second day. I played early on the first day and then we were off at around 2.30pm so I needed the first couple of holes as a bit of an adjustment for the conditions,” explains Cort.

“Paul Nessling and Ben Hall dropped a couple of shots and I got ahead around the turn and the big turning point was an eagle at the 13th where I hit a great 3-wood to 12 feet at the par 5 and made that. I had a look at the scoring app on the 16th and I had a bit of a cushion but the last few holes were playing pretty tough as it was cold and the ball was going nowhere. On the first day I hit a 9-iron in to the 16th and the next day my 4-iron was still short of the flag.

“They’re good events. The money is great for a win and it might be a good to have a cash or order of merit incentive across the series but it’s only the second year that they’ve done it.”

Cort’s CV boasts plenty of wins over the years. After playing on the European Tour he was as high as 386th in the world before he undertook his PGA training where, in his final year, he won the British Assistants Championship on three consecutive years which remains a first. More wins have seen him play in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth six times and he has represented Great Britain and Ireland in the past three PGA Cups – in the 2019 matches he contributed four out of a possible five points.

“I’ve not got many weaknesses. If you watched me side by side on the range I might not strike it as well as others but I’m quite accurate and all bits of my game are decent so I tend to get myself in the mix quite a bit. I’m quite confident that, if I can get in the mix, then I will have a chance of coming through. Early in my career, that wasn’t the case, I would stumble over the last few holes but I guess that is down to experience.

“I’ve kind of had two careers with the mini tours and then getting on the main tour where I had a couple of top 10s and I played in two Opens. Then I fell away a little bit and I was in a bit of limbo and not sure what to do and then I joined the PGA and that gave me another go at it. If all you’ve got is the main tour and you’re struggling then golf is hard and not that rewarding so doing the PGA training was great.

“My feeling was that I could either join the PGA or get out of golf and do something else as couldn’t see myself playing mini tours or Challenge Tour without a sponsor. I’ve played on the last three PGA Cup teams and they are a great experience. I’ve now got two children so I’ve got responsibilities and I can still be around for my kids at the weekends.”

One particular claim to fame was that Cort not only played with Phil Mickelson at the 2002 Open but he also outscored Tiger Woods on that infamous Saturday at Muirfield.

“Not that it means anything but I beat Tiger Woods that day. We teed off quite early at about 9am and we got most of the round done before this massive storm came in and Woods shot 81 and Monty an 84. I frittered some shots away at the end but I had a 78.

“I remember Mickelson asking where I was from and I replied that it was just a local club in Leicester with a small range and I asked where he practised and he replied the Titleist Performance Institute in San Diego and I thought, ‘OK, bit different there’. The next time The Open was played at Muirfield he won there.”

With the prospect of turning 50 not too far away Cort will consider having a go for the seniors tour in both the United States and in Europe and, closer to home, attempt to win the Staysure PGA Seniors Championship.

“If I could win that then I would have won every PGA strokeplay event which has never been done. Having said that, I’ve probably jinxed that now!”