Total Triumph for Licata
26/04/2018
Giuseppe Licata was once again the star of the Gloucester and Somerset PGA player after completing a hat-trick of wins during the weather-ravaged winter season.
The Chipping Sodbury teaching professional won the 36-hole Total Triumph Stroke play, the final event at Filton. This followed success in the Total Triumph Order of Merit. He was also runner-up in the Match play Championship.
Licata and Ross Langdon (Brickhampton Court) led at the halfway stage with one over par rounds of 71 on a breezy day punctuated by a few brief showers. They proved to be the best of the day over the tricky Bristol layout.
Bristol-based former Celtic Manor professional Joe Ferguson and Andrew March (Brean) shot 73 with seven others posting 75.
The wind increased for the second circuit and so did the scores. Licata, on a course he knows well from his amateur days, capitalized on a couple of disastrous holes by his playing partner Langdon to take the lead.
But defending champion Ashley Mansell (Clevedon) and March challenged as everyone dropped shots. Licata made a rare birdie at the 16th followed by two pars to card six-over-par 146.
Mansell dropped strokes at 16 and 18 to end one shot back while March bogeyed the final two holes to finish two behind to share third with Langdon. Cirencester’s Ed Goodwin and Ferguson were joint fifth.
Licata was followed by Goodwin in the OOM with George Ryall (Worlebury) third to make up the team for the PGA County Championship. Langdon, Mansell and Alex Munro (Bristol Golf Centre) followed.
The leading 16 available players will also play in next season’s opening event, The Courage Matchplay Championship in September at Chipping Sodbury.
