Joe cruises to victory

Joe Cruse won his first title as a professional with a two-over-par round of 71 at Newquay to become this year’s Cornwall Professional Golfers Alliance champion.

He turned professional with Nick Williams at St Enodoc in September after an illustrious amateur career. He narrowly failed to complete his amateur career as a winner as he lost at the fourth play-off hole in the English champion of champions.

He said: ”It was great to get my first win of 2019. The course was in unreal condition for this time of year. I have been knocking on the door for a while so hopefully can kick on with the start of the season approaching.”

Cruse, the Cornwall county champion twice in three years, finished three shots clear of Alliance captain Chris Ramsden (Mullion) with Chris Gill (Newquay) and Jonathan Lamb (Tehidy Park) third a further shot back.

He also won the Brian Gripe Award with club amateur Colin Reynolds on 67 points, one better than Joe Venn (Tehidy) and Carl White (Newquay).

White scored 38 points to become the amateur champion followed by 34 Nick Connelly (St Enodoc), 33 Nick Avery (Mullion), Dev Adey (Newquay) , Colin Reynolds (St Enodoc) and 32 Alan Engall (Mullion).