New boy blooms on Minchinhampton’s Old Course

Josh Heseltine-Smith welcomed the new year by recording the first win of his fledging professional career in the latest Total Triumph-sponsored Gloucestershire and Somerset PGA Winter Series event at Minchinhampton.

Heseltine-Smith, a first year PGA trainee attached to Brean Golf Club, amassed 38 Stableford points to finish at the head of the season’s best 27-strong field.

The victory was achieved in what was just the Welshman’s fourth appearance in the series and on his first encounter with the Old Course at the Gloucestershire venue.

Not that was evident from his high-octane start. He recorded three birdies in the first six holes and another at the ninth although these were tempered by a bogey at the second and a double blip at the eighth.

One more bogey, which erased a birdie at 13, followed on the back nine before the sixth birdie of Heseltine-Smith’s round at the par four 17^th proved decisive.

That ensured he finished a point clear of the trio comprising Brickhampton Court’s Ross Langdon and Filton Golf Club duo Giuseppe Licata and Mark Pitcher, and two ahead of Sherdons Golf Centre’s Jamie Roach.

Despite having to settle for share of second place, Licata still boasts a healthy lead in the Order of Merit. He is more than 60 points clear of club-mate Pitcher, who has climbed above Gloucestershire and Somerset PGA chairman Andrew March as a result of finishing tied second.

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