Harris and Hill take Prince’s new crown
11/07/2014
Jamie Harris claimed the PGA Prince’s 27 for his seventh victory of what is proving to be a very successful 2014 season.
He and amateur partner Nick Hill of PGA sponsor KRL, carded a total of 101 to win the new format event, with Harris adding another winners’ cheque to his growing 2014 tally while Hill walked away with a GoKart electric trolley.
Their winning six-under-par performance, which according to Harris was largely down to 18 handicap Hill’s scoring and Harris ‘being around for the pars when Nick wasn’t making net birdies’, was based on their three nines of 36, 35 and 30.
Their five-under-par (nett) 30 for the Himalayas as their last nine, pushed the matching 101 score of Kieran Staunton (Woodcote Park) and his amateur partner Colin Caulfield into second spot.
Based on an idea of much missed PGA supporter David Sylvester, the three variations of team golf – Foursomes, Greensomes and Betterball - were played around the three nines of the Prince’s layout, the Shore, Dunes and Himalayas.
Harris was delighted with the day’s results, saying: “Nick did all the flashy stuff in the last round on the Himalayas in the Betterball, I just had to be there making pars when he wasn’t making the nett birdies!
“We started on the Shore playing Foursomes and despite a poor finish of double bogey and bogey on the 17th and 18th, we were level par (nett). The Greensomes was round the Dunes nine and a chip in at the 14th for a three nett to offset the next three bogeys out of the last four holes and finish one-under-par for that nine, making the most of Nick’s five strokes.
“The Betterball round was our last but that’s the one where the two of you can really make a score, whereas foursomes can see your scoring change very quickly and it’s not easy to pull things back.
“Nick started with a net eagle, parred the third, fifth and seventh to make nett birdies and we finished with a five-under-par 30 to snatch the win from Kieran and Colin!
“It’s a brilliant, fun event played at a terrific course that everyone loves playing. It always was a great idea of our much missed friend David Sylvester, but thanks to Paul Stuart and Benn Barham it’s now been re-instated into the schedule, so with some lovely weather we all had another cracking day’s golf thanks to the teams at Prince’s and The PGA in England (South).
Harris added, “2014’s proving an interesting season, with some good results and some definitely not so good results, but I don’t get frustrated by the poor scores. It would be fun to do well in a couple more of the Virgin Atlantic Little Red PGA South Order of Merit events, and be in a position to have a crack at those spots for The PGA Play Offs.”
The next OOM event is the PGA Surrey Open at Kingswood on the 30th and 31st of July.
