Too Goodey

Gloucester and Somerset PGA captain Robin Goodey won his first ever county medal at frozen Forest Hills. The Chipping Sodbury general manager recovered from a poor start to beat a chasing pack of six players by one point.

Stableford format was used thanks to sub-zero overnight temperatures and solid conditions at the Coleford course in the Forest of Dean, Goodey amassing 33 points.

Goodey was chased hard by Daryl Kelley (Filton), Giuseppe Licata (Chipping Sodbury), Somerset amateur Matt Kippen (Enmore Park), Ashley Mansell (Clevedon), Mark Pitcher (Stinchcombe) and Russ Berry (Broadway), the front runners in the 30-plus field.

The eventual winner opened with a par but had bunker trouble at the second and also failed to score at the fourth. Goodey looked an unlikely winner at that stage but recovered well with more birdies than bogeys. He picked up shots at the seventh, eighth, 15th and 17^th.

Licata produced another solid showing to stretch his lead over Ed Goodwin (Cirencester) in the Total Triumph Order of Merit.

Kelley won the Over 40’s sweep for the first time since reaching the qualifying age. He and Kippen took advantage of Goodey’s decision not to enter the birdie sweep to share the pot between them with three each.