George still keeps winning

Former European Seniors Tour winner George Ryall is proving that reaching the age of 60 is no barrier to winning golf tournaments.

Now attached to Mendip Spring as a teaching professional he returned to one of his former clubs to win the latest Gloucester and Somerset PGA medal at the Players Club.

He posted a five under par round of 67 which included five birdies and an eagle. Crucially two of those birdies came at the final two holes which edged him clear of James Hannam (Bath) and Mark Sanders (Knowle) who both returned rounds of 68.

Some brief flurries of snow fell on the early starters on a bitterly cold morning.  Ryall birdied the first and third holes before adding an eagle at the ninth to turn in four under par.

 Hannam and Sanders played alongside each other in the low scoring group of the day. They were joined by fourth placed Mark Plummer (Cirencester). Between them the trio were collectively 11 under par.

They carded 15 birdies with Hannam claiming six on the way to his best finish of the season. Filton’s Daryl Kelley was fifth on 70, one ahead of  Luke Derrick (Henbury).

Oake Manor assistant  Matt Turner made his debut in dual county medals and made his mark inside two holes. He holed in one at the short second and this collected him the running sweep which has been accumulating since January. 

But a card-wrecking 11 on the seventh hole ended his challenge for the day. He rallied well though and added six more birdies in his final 10 holes to collect the birdie sweep money.

The top three in the Total Triumph Order of Merit are now starting to distance themselves from the chasing pack. Chinning Sodbury’s Giuseppe Licata still leads by just under 20 points but Ryall has leapfrogged Ed Goodwin into second with Kelley fourth.