Gane crowns Richmond show with record 62

Chris Gane (LeftHandedGolf@Silveremere) showed everyone the sort of form he’s in, shooting a flawless eight-under-par 62 to win The Richmond Pro-Am by four strokes, and setting a new course record in the process.

Taking the winner’s cheque for £800 back home with him, current PGA Surrey Open champion Gane cruised away to victory from his nearest rivals, namely James Ablett (Lee-on-the-Solent) who shot a four-under-par 66 for £600, and Kevin Tilbury (Hazelmere) who carded a 67 for £450.

With top 10 finishes in every event he’s played in since the beginning of May, Gane’s 62 joins the list of very low scorers this season. This includes Andy Raitt’s seven-under-par 65 at East Sussex National, Zane Scotland’s seven-under-par 64 at Rochester & Cobham, Guy Woodman’s eight-under-par 62 at Sand Martin’s, James Ablett’s eight-under-par 64 at Farnham, and David Osborn’s seven-under-par 64 at Hayling, so Gane is in excellent company.

The man himself was typically modest about his new official course record, saying only: “It was one of those rounds where everything went right! There’s something about the course that I really like, and at this time of year with running fairways and receptive greens, all four par fives were on and as I was driving really well, I only needed irons to reach the greens.”

In fact Gane used a four-, eight-, seven-, and seven-irons to set up birdies on three of Richmond’s four par fives, with birdies on three other holes, the first, second and a deuce at the 14^th. Starting at the 18^th, Gane finished in flamboyant style with an eagle at the 17^th when he was already six-under-par, to finish way out in front.

At the dinner afterwards Gane quipped that he hoped his course record would last longer than the other one he’d held, which lasted all of 24 hours before being broken again. It wasn’t as though all his putts went in the hole either, as he had 32 of those.

Instead, Gane reflected on the impact very low scores were having on the region, the clubs, their members and the players, commenting: “There’s a fantastic buzz around the place when a really low score comes in, and it clearly adds a certain magic to the pro-ams themselves, either in the expectation of a course record, or when one is made.”

He continued: “Low scoring isn’t something that clubs need to get protective about either. In fact, from what I’ve seen, it pays a huge compliment to the course, because to achieve a really low score the conditions – tees, fairways and greens especially - have to be top notch. A low score advertises that to everyone and gets a club the right kind of attention, while adding an extra level of excitement to the event itself.”