Hampshire pair tame the course that Jack built

Mark Treleaven, above, and Jonathan Barnes tamed the Jack Nicklaus-designed course at St Mellion today to set up a dramatic climax to the Golfbreaks.com PGA Fourball Championship.

The duo from Hampshire completed the second round of a course renowned for its difficulty and capacity to punish wayward shots in 61 – an astonishing 11-under-par.

Not only is that the best round of the £33,250 event by some distance, it sees them sharing pole position with defending champions Jason Levermore and Andrew Pestell on 14-under.

Levermore and Pestell, the overnight leaders, looked to have strengthened their chances of retaining the title by posting a six-under-par 66 for the second round in conditions the former described as more testing than on day one.

“It was trickier today,” said Levermore. “The wind made it a bit harder and it was little bit cooler as well so the ball wasn’t going as far as it did yesterday. 

The manner in which Treleaven and Barnes performed, however, suggests a tempest would have been hard put to blow them off course, especially the former. 

Treleaven, the head PGA Professional at Hayling Golf Club, accounted for five of the duo’s nine birdies and weighed in with an eagle at the par-five seventh.

Having started on the tenth, the eagle came at the 16^th hole of their round and was the highlight of a birdie-laden inward nine.

“We were four-under on the front nine,” said Treleaven. “But it really came together on the back nine. I shot seven-under on the back nine and, to be honest, I left a few shots out there on the front nine. It’s a tough course and you have to hit the ball straight, which I did.”

Treleaven and his partner, the head PGA Professional at Lee-on-the-Solent Golf Club, will be paired with Levermore and Pestell in the final round in what could be viewed as a duel for the £5,500 winner’s cheque.

However, with just five strokes spanning the top eight pairs, the tournament remains anything but a two-cornered contest.

Nottinghamshire pair Andrew Willey and Kevin Crossland, on 13-under, are the best placed of the challengers to the leading pair while St Mellion’s Ross Whitelock and Paul Hendriksen (Dinnaton) two strokes further back carry West Country hopes.

See all the images from St Mellion on Flickr.