Rayleigh Club professional takes King’s Lynn pro-am
22/07/2014
Mark Hooper recovered from a slow start in the King’s Lynn GC Pro-Am to register his fifth win – and counting – on this year’s PGA in England (East) tournament schedule.
The Rayleigh Club PGA Professional is enjoying a stellar season that already includes one Order of Merit tournament success, as well as that memorable week at the BMW PGA Championship.
Hooper’s latest success came after a couple of early slips left him two-over par through five holes at the tree-lined north Norfolk venue.
The revival started with a birdie at the par-four seventh and he was back at level-par by the turn.
Hooper picked up another shot at the 10th and made a two at the short 16th. A mistake at the next threatened to upset Hooper’s victory charge.
But he closed out by holing a 20-footer for his fifth birdie of the round to end up on a two-under-par total of 70 – two better than joint runners-up, Stuart Brown (Orton Meadows) and Chase Davis (Stapleford Abbotts).
Hooper has now won twice and finished tied-second in his last three starts – top form, ahead of this week’s Order of Merit event, the Weston Homes plc/Colchester GC Classic.
He said: “I played nicely and am hitting it much better off the tee. After I won at Essendon last month I knew that I had to make a couple of changes with my grip and swing, just to try and hit the ball a little bit higher after what I learnt at Wentworth.
“I sacrificed a couple of weeks really...hitting a few dodgy shots. But it is really coming good and I am looking forward to Colchester this week.”
Davis had it to two-under himself at one stage, picking up three shots across back-to-back par-fives, either side of the turn. But he was unable to push on and fell back after carding a double bogey at the 13th.
George Howard (Brampton Park) enjoyed a stunning scoring spree on the back-nine, firing four straight birdies from the 13th. He was one of five players to share fourth spot.
Jamie Le Brun (Ely) captained the winning team, whose tally of 132 proved just good enough on countback.
