Fast starter Chase in East Herts win

Chase Davis capitalised on a red hot start to win the East Herts GC Pro-Am by a shot from Chris Cutchie.

Davis, a PGA assistant professional at Stapleford Abbotts in Essex, launched his victory bid with an eagle at the par four 10th – his first hole.

He then picked up four more shots to find himself six-under through eight holes. After the turn, Davis couldn’t quite keep up such an electric pace of scoring but his five-under-par 66 was enough to hold off Colchester’s Cutchie.

Davis, who was also successful in a Powerade Assistants’ qualifier in April, said:  “It’s a big pro-am with 41 teams and a good one to win. It’s nice to get one under the belt for the year. I enjoy the course, the greens were nice and I think I only hit one bad shot all day.”

“I had an unbelievable start. The eagle on 10 got it going. It was downwind and I hit a three-wood that bounced on and had a nice left-lip putt from 15 feet that went in. Then I birdied the next, having stuck a wedge to about two feet.

“I kind of started to protect it on the back nine, instead of going for more. I should have been looking for lower but because I haven’t been that far under this year it was kind of a different experience.”

Davis will be aiming to take the confidence gained from his win into this month’s Order of Merit events at Colchester and Royal Cromer.

He said:  “I used to live in Norwich and play at Cromer quite a bit, so it will be quite nice to go back home again and Colchester is not far from where I am now.”

Andrew George (Ely City) and Jason Levermore (Channels) both shared third place at East Herts, while Mark Hooper (The Rayleigh Club) led the winning team.