Leesy does it

The two Welsh representatives contesting the Virgin Atlantic PGA National Pro-Am Championship in Mexico turned the final round into a dramatic domestic showdown that was not resolved until the last hole.

And fittingly, given the pro-am format of the competition, which is also supported by SkyCaddie and BMW, it was the amateur partnering Vale of Llangollen assistant PGA professional Lee Rooke who delivered the coup de grace.

Nick Jones, a 40-year-old from Wrexham, had picked up on the last hole of the Jungle loop of the Jack Nicklaus-designed Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort, Cancun, in the first of the grand final's two rounds.

When it came to the crunch, however, the eight-handicapper kept his cool in the Mexican sunshine to repel the challenge of the Parc Golf Academy, Newport.

Unfazed by the water that guards the par five hole's green, Jones executed a superb nine-iron approach shot and followed up with a putt that left him with a tap-in nett birdie for a six-under-par round of 66 and one stroke victory.

As well as clinching the trophy and the £5,000 cheque on offer to the winning PGA professional, Jones's approach and nerveless putt typified the standard of golf from both pairs that had graced the tournament.

That was especially the case during the tense finale after the Vale of Llangollen had put daylight between themselves and their compatriots at the turn.

Level with Parc on seven-under at the start of play, Rooke and Jones birdied the last four holes of the Dunes loop to establish a three-stroke lead.

However, when Dinsdale, capitalising on a sprinkler head preventing his over-cooked approach from trundling into a bunker, birdied the par four 15th, the deficit had been wiped out.

Thereafter Dinsdale and Rooke traded pressure shots. Parity remained following the par three 16th but when both found sand with their tee shots at the par four 17th, the trophy looked destined for Llangollen.

Rooke, benefitting from an easier lie and more comfortable stance, drilled his escape to within 12 feet. By contrast, Dinsdale, his ball marooned under the lip of the bunker, left his 50 yards short. His approach, however, was five feet shy of being immaculate.

And so to the last where, despite Dinsdale and Rooke both reaching the green in three, it fell to the latter's amateur partner to decide the destiny of Europe's largest pro-am.

“Given that it was a pro-am, I think it's appropriate an amateur like Nick should settle it," said a grateful Rooke.

"He played superbly throughout and I certainly relied on him in the first round. It was more of a team effort today - it had to be because Richard is a fine golfer.

"I hadn't played him before but I had been told that's he's a tough opponent and he certainly proved it. Even when we went three strokes clear, I knew he would make us work for our win."

That win is the largest and most prestigious of Rooke's career and follows him earning £4,000 after finishing runner up to defending champion Hugo Santos in the UniCredit 2012 PGA Professional Championship of Europe in late September.

Furthermore, it marks a happy return to the Moon Palace Golf and Spa Resort for him.

"I came here for my honeymoon seven years ago," revealed Rooke, whose wife Lucy is due to give birth to the couple's first child in May.

Inevitably Rooke's victory spelt disappointment for Dinsdale, not least because it stopped him and his club from becoming the first to win the trophy twice.

Typically, though, Dinsdale, who won the event in 2006, was magnanimous in defeat.

"It was very tense and we put the squeeze on them," he said. "But fair dos, they responded really well. Obviously I'm disappointed but it's a consolation the trophy has ended up in Wales."

Dinsdale and the Parc Golf Academy were not alone in becoming the first player and club from missing out on winning the event for a second time.

Martyn Thomson, the head PGA professional at Parkstone Golf Club, Dorset and winner in 2004, had to settle for third place after he and his amateur partner, Grant Batchelor, posted a five-under-par two-round total of 139.

Three strokes back were Lee Fickling and Richard Oughton, PGA professional and amateur respectively from Bush Hill Park Golf Club, Middlesex; while the pairs from the Forest of Arden, Warwickshire, and Disley Golf Club, Cheshire, were the only others in the 16-strong field to break par.