Rising star and regular winner share top spot

Paul Nessling (Cooden Beach) and Jamie Harris (Nevill) shot three-under-par 67s to share the spoils at The Richmond Pro-Am.

Their win puts them in fourth and second spot respectively in The PGA in England (South) Prize Money List 2014.

For Nessling, his magical return to winning form has now delivered two wins in a week, while for established southern star Harris this result marks his eighth win in the 2014 schedule to date.

Their scores edged out the 68s of David Osborn (West Hill), James Ablett (Lee-on-The-Solent), Russell Buxton (Hassocks) and six-time winner in 2014 Chris Gane (LefthandedGolf@Silvermere).

Playing Richmond for the first time and starting at the fourth, Nessling opened with a bogey and bounced back at the sixth with a deuce. He charged through the next 11 holes making five birdies at the ninth, 10^th, 11^th, 13^th and 16^th to reach five-under-par, only to drop two calamitous shots at the 18^th through taking the wrong club off the tee.

Nessling bounced back again at the first with another birdie to get back to four-under, but one more dropped shot on the second, his penultimate hole, finally shot away his chances of a solo victory.

Starting at the 15^th, Harris had six straightforward pars and then went on a see saw ride for the next five holes, going birdie at the third, then bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie, coming out relatively unscathed at one-under-par. The same happened when he birdied the 11^th and bogeyed the 12^th, but with two holes to go Harris dug deep to make two more birdies at his last two holes, the 13^th and 14^th and get home in 67 to tie with Nessling.

Nessling was again delighted to find he’s maintaining his winning form, as he commented: “The late night coaching session with my Head PGA Professional Jeff Sim before the Kingswood Charity Pro-Am has made all the difference, and I’m swinging naturally without any confusing swing thoughts. I’m really looking forward to the PGA Surrey Open now.”

Nessling backed what many others felt about the presentation of the Richmond course, adding: “It’s a really lovely golf course, and one of the best presented in terms of the way it was cut. The renovation by Thomson Perrett Lobb (TPL) is first class.”

This refers to the club’s decision to follow six times Open Champion Peter Thomson’s advice to return the bunkers to their traditional appearance when designed by Tom Dunn in 1891 with jagged edges and long grass surrounds, dramatically enhancing the course’s visual impact.

Despite a limited budget and most of the work being done by the club’s greenkeeping team, the course renovation won the prestigious Golf Inc. magazine’s Renovation Of The Year award in 2013.