Three of the best

Three of The PGA in Surrey’s more lucrative and popular Pro-Am events have been hosted recently at Woodcote Park GC, Guildford GC and Surbiton GC, with top calibre players taking the winners’ cheques.

 In the Woodcote Park Pro-Am, invitee Guy Woodman (East Berks) waltzed away with the top prize of £900, shooting a terrific score of four-under-par 68 to claim victory by four strokes from Woodcote Park’s own local hero Ben St.John with a level par 72.

Woodman made six birdies around the challenging Woodcote course with just the one blot on his copybook, a double bogey five on the third. His four stroke lead proved too much for St.John whose four birdies were offset by four bogeys.

The Guildford Pro-Am proved a closer contest, but Craig Cowper’s (Horton Park) two-under-par 67 proved to be two strokes too good for the following pack of Gary Marks (World of Golf), Luke Bone (Farnham), Michael Lowe (Leatherhead) to match.

Cowper’s performance earned him a useful winner’s cheque for £560. Despite one bogey on each of the nines, Cowper’s four birdies and 12 pars were enough to take the win.

However, things could have been very different, for Marks’ performance included two eagles on par fours as well as two birdies. Sadly, having played some fabulous golf to stand on the 15^th tee on five-under-par, his last four holes proved very expensive as he double bogeyed the 15^th, dropped a shot on the 17^th and then doubled the 18^th to drop back to par.

Tim Spence (The Golf College) clearly warmed to the challenges posed by the course in the Surbiton Pro-Am.

He produced seven birdies and the one bogey for a scorching six-under-par 64, grabbing the winner’s cheque for £800 from the hands of the new Virgin Atlantic PGA Southern Open Champion, Matthew Ford.

Ford shot a flawless 65 for the second prize of £600, while Bill Hodkin’s (Performance Golf Studio) front nine charge got him to four-under-par, but couldn’t improve on that on his way to a useful card of 66 and £450.