Gane continues Kingswood love affair
06/07/2016
Chris Gane (LeftHandedGolf@Silvermere) claimed yet another victory at one of his favourite courses when he shot a four-under-par 68 to win the Kingswood Charity Pro-Am.
Taking home the winner’s cheque for £825 and marking his sixth win of the 2016 season, Gane claimed victory by edging out three of his nearest rivals by one stroke: Paul Nessling (Cooden Beach), Robert Cameron (Sundridge Park), and recent winner Nico Els (Professional Golf Tuition Breaks), each of whom took home cheques for £525.
Gane not only won the individual event, but played with Team Hilliard - father Tom, son Jeff and the group’s financial director – to win the team event as well, making it a first for Tom and Jeff as the proud owners of one of Surrey’s top golfing venues.
Surrey’s leading lefthander commented: “It’s not officially my home course, but it may as well be! I have a real affinity for the place, played really solid and made all the par fives in two for birdies. It was very breezy and so there were holes you had to play well, but the course was in great shape and the greens were the best I’ve ever seen them – and winning his first home Pro-Am as well all helped make Tom’s day!”
Gane’s impressive record at Kingswood in the last three years started with his emphatic victory in the PGA Surrey Open, when he shot rounds of 66 and 67 to win by four shots in a very strong fields.
In 2015, he tied with Leatherhead’s Michael Lowe on four-under-par 68 in the Charity Pro-Am. He came back a month later to defend his Surrey title, but his opening round appeared to leave the left-hander too many shots behind to challenge for the lead.
Yet against the odds, Gane managed to reach an astonishing 11-under-par in the second round alone. With just two holes to go, an amazing card of 61 around the Braid-designed championship course looked a real possibility until disaster struck. Nonetheless, his seven-under-par card of 65 left him holding third spot and the new course record for the recently rebuilt Kingswood.
This time out, Gane dropped just the one shot at the short third, and then went into birdie-making mode, firing off two on the trot and another at the ninth to reach two-under. Two more came at the par fives 11th and 14th, and a safe inward run of pars put Gane on the now familiar winner’s podium.
Of the nearest rivals, both Nessling and Els dropped three shots each while notching up more birdies than Gane. Cameron’s round on the other hand was an unflappable bogey-free 69.
Kingswood is once more the venue for this year’s PGA Surrey Open, where last year James Ablett (Lee-on-the-Solent) claimed the title on his way to becoming the current Virgin Atlantic PGA South Order of Merit champion.
