Nessling edges James to grab a grand

Paul Nessling (Cooden Beach) returned from a recent injury to shoot a two-under-par 68 to take home the £1,000 top prize at the Mid Kent Pro-Am.

Nessling was delighted, commenting: “2019’s looking pretty good so far, in spite of my recent gardening accident! I got married a few weeks back and have now won here and at Haywards Heath earlier in the week. Mid Kent always lays on a great day whatever the weather, and I’m really chuffed to be back at the top.”

On a day when the weather was far from typical for June, Nessling got off to a shaky start making early bogeys but he bounced back with birdies at the fifth and seventh, and made one more for good measure to go out in 34.
On the back nine, he made one more birdie at the 11th to reach two-under-par and while his birdie streak then dried up, Nessling made solid pars all the way home to secure pole position.

Sussex rival Mark James (Pyecombe) and the unattached Ben Talbot found the birdies but not the consistency. Talbot was one-under after nine, and two more birdies at the 11th and 12th put him in front, but dropped shots at the 12th and the 18th undid all the good work.

James made two bogeys, two birdies and an eagle to go out in two-under, and offset a bogey at the 12th with a birdie at the 17th, but then when all he needed was a par to join Nessling, he bogeyed the last hole to join Talbot in second spot.

In the team event, Mid Kent’s own Ashley Morrisson made three club members very happy by leading them to a -13 victory, edging both Talbot’s and Nessling’s teams into second and third spots respectively on -12.