Goodwin makes it a sensational six

Cirencester club pro Ed Goodwin claimed his sixth Gloucester and Somerset PGA Pairs Championship – each with a different partner - over the Channel Course at Burnham and Berrow.

This time his assistant James Harraway enjoyed the benefit of his boss’s experience on a breezy and damp day attended by 36 players who included several newcomers. No player had ever won the event more than twice.

In the traditional end of year event the opening circuit was played in a scramble format with betterball used on the second lap of the tight nine-hole layout where scoring was tricky.

The Cirencester pair covered the front nine holes in a best-of-the-day four-under-par 31, picking up the shots at the fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth. The only blemish came at the 10th but a Harraway birdie at the 15th and a closing gain from Goodwin saw them home by two strokes on 65.

Two pairs shared second spot on 67. Andrew March (Brean) and David Dixon (Enmore Park) carded four birdies and one bogey.  Mendip Spring pro John Blackburn and his assistant Will Hobbs repeated the second place they achieved 12 months earlier. They came home in 33 with the lowest betterball score of the day.

Home pro David Haines and former Moor Park professional Lawrence Farmer, who now resides in Somerset, were fourth on 68.

Seniors star George Ryall (Players) and his protégé Ashley Mansell (Clevedon), and their playing partners for the day Nick Ellis and Pete Garratt from Naunton Downs, were one shot further back in fifth.