Duo hit top gear at Prince’s

Reigning PGA Play-Offs champion Richard Wallis (Walmer & Kingsdown) and Kent star Paul Sherman (Ashford) both shot five-under-par 67 to share victory in the PGA Kent Open Championship Pro-Am supported by the C+K Group.

Despite shooting seven birdies over the Shore-Dunes combination at Prince’s, Sherman’s two bogeys on the trot at the sixth and seventh spoiled what might have been the winning card, while Wallis went round in another flawless display with five birdies.

Together they edged out the 68s of Andy Raitt (St. George’s Hill), Mark Hillson (Tandridge) and local man Mark Belsham (Prince’s), to pick up winners’ cheques for £662.50.

Starting at the 10th, Wallis soon got down to business with a birdie at the 12th, followed by another at the 15th to be out in two-under-par. Another three at the second, fifth and seventh made a total of 67.

Sherman (above), starting form the first, went off like a rocket with birdies on the first, second and fourth, but two dropped shots at the sixth and seventh knocked him back to one-under-par at the turn. Despite the stumble, Sherman picked himself up and made birdies at the 11th and 12th to put him right back in contention. Two more at the 16th and 18th took him to the top and sharing the lead with Wallis.

Wallis’s seventh win this season puts him back in front of Jamie Harris for the 2013 Money List leadership, but his focus is on the PGA Kent Open Championship.

He said: “It was a really solid round, almost regulation golf. With fair weather forecast again, I’m really looking forward to the main event, the PGA Kent Open Championship.”

Sherman was delighted to chalk up his second regional victory in 2013, after shooting seven-under-par at Chart Hills to win the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer Charity Pro-Am.

He commented: “I’m enjoying some good form at the moment. I played nicely, putted well but bunkered a couple of loose shots that wound up as bogeys.
“Seven birdies at Prince’s is always something to relish, although with hardly any wind it was somewhat easier than usual. Whether it’ll be like that for the main event is another question!”