Rivals ready for Order of Merit finale

Good friends Jason Levermore (above left) and Mark Hooper (above right) are all set to renew their professional rivalry when the PGA in England (East) Order of Merit race reaches its climax at The Rayleigh Club Championship on September 24-25.

The two Essex professionals are currently one and two respectively in the Order of Merit and in prime position to extend their recent monopoly on the top spot.

Levermore (Channels) claimed the last of his three Order of Merit crowns in 2012 before Hooper landed his first a year ago.

The pair have once more enjoyed great success in 2014, with Hooper claiming victory in the PGA East Region Championship at Essendon and this month’s PGA East Anglian Open.

Levermore has been a model of consistency in the five Order of Merit tournaments staged so far, recording four top-six finishes. He has also been in superb form in the region’s pro-ams, winning eight times this season.

Levermore heads to the Rayleigh Club with a 162-point advantage at the summit. If he finishes in the top-15, it will be good enough to see him finish the season as the East’s number one – even if Hooper (The Rayleigh Club) wins.

Whatever transpires, the two men have the healthiest of respect for one another and are eager to renew ‘battle’ on the fairways at The Rayleigh Club.

Levermore said: “Mark and I have known each other for probably 10 years and have been good friends for the last four or five years.

“He has always been a good golfer and hit it very well. When I first knew him, he struggled to put scores together – like five or six-under. Then in the last six or seven years, he has put them together all the time.

“His scoring capabilities have improved a lot more. But he has always been a good player.”

In turn, Hooper said: “Jason is such a good player and has been playing so well recently.”

Levermore has already secured his place in the end-of-season Titleist PGA Play-Offs in Turkey, by virtue of finishing second in the Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship. That effectively will result in opens the door for whoever finishes fourth in the region to make it through to the Antalya event, which will take place on November 29-December 1.

And it is qualifying for the play-offs that is on Hooper’s mind, rather than topping the Order of Merit, as he prepares to compete at the club where he is a PGA Professional.

He said: “I’ve played a few social games there recently and I’ve been playing really well around there. So I feel really confident in what I’m doing.

“If I play like I did at Basildon, I feel confident of doing well. Obviously, what everyone else does, I have no control over. But if I can shoot a couple of good scores under par that should put me pretty close, I reckon. I am looking forward to it.”

Levermore wants to cap a great season in the region with a first Order of Merit victory since he landed the Weston Homes plc/East Herts Classic in July 2012.

He said: “This year has been very good for me and I would like to win the Order of Merit, definitely. But my aim for the week is to win at Rayleigh, to be honest, because I haven’t won an Order of Merit event for a couple of years.

“I wanted to win at Basildon last week just to tick that off. But I didn’t, so I would like to win at Rayleigh to get an Order of Merit tournament under my belt again.”