O’Hanlon wins at Exeter again

Richard O’Hanlon, who is now based at St Kew, his third Cornish club following Lanhydrock and The Point at Polzeath, won the Exeter Ladies pro-am with a round of three-under-par 66.

He is enjoying an impressive start to the season, is comfortable on the Exeter course and also won the club’s charity pro-am last September.

“I have been playing really well this year,” he said after finishing runner-up to Simon Edwards in Portugal and third the following week in two guest appearances in the North Region.

“I played brilliantly for two days in our first order of merit event at Saunton and was the only player not to have a bogey in the second round.”

He only dropped one shot at Exeter on the par three sixth. But he birdied three of the other par threes after his first birdie on the par five third in the event that raised money for the club’s charity, the Exeter Leukaemia Fund.

Richard Sadler (Killiow), the other prolific Cornwall-based winner, was two over par when he aced the 144-yard 12th hole using a 9-iron.

This sparked his round for he added birdies at the 13th, 14th and 16th to those he made at the third and seventh. But his chance of sharing top spot ended with his fifth bogey at the 17th so he settled for second place.

Paul Hendriksen (Dinnaton), another player who has started the season well, came in later to share the runner-up spot. Like Sadler he had the chance to catch O’Hanlon but also bogeyed the tough long 17th par four after making five birdies and only dropping to shots earlier.

Adam Frayne, who is threatening to become a major player in the region this year after signing as a trainee at Yelverton, also broke par with a one-under-68. He made three birdies in the opening four holes, but added four bogeys to two further birdies at the 12th and 14th.

James Ruth (China Fleet), one of four players sharing fifth, made an expensive double bogey after his ball was stuck up a tree on the 14th.    

Sadler’s Killiow team of Emma Burrows, Sue Dickinson and Mel Byrne swept to the top with 85 points, three more than O’Hanlon’s group of Hacker Browning, Erika Vierk and Lesley Pocklington while Stover’s Ross Troake, Teresa Metters, Anne-Marie Cleave and Liz Payne were third on 79.