Woodman turns on the style

Guy Woodman (above) won The PGA in Sussex Open Championship, supported by Virgin Atlantic Little Red and Coppard Plant Hire.

The in-form star shot a magical second round 64 around Sweetwoods Park, to ease to 11-under-par 133, but still required a one-hole play-off against his East Berks colleague Paul Newman to take the title.

It was Woodman’s sixth success on the regional schedule in the last two months. He took home £1,750 after getting up and down for a par at the first play-off hole to beat Newman who walked away with £1,250, while in third place Charlie Wilson (Littlestone) shot 136 to earn £940.

Woodman commented: “I’m really making the most of my winning form to fund my crack at the Asian Tour in September. The Sweetwoods course was in great shape and the greens matched the best we’ve played this year, but the main credit goes to Alan Tate’s greenkeeping team who kept the course in top condition despite all the rain we had.”

In the opening event, the Sweetwoods Park Pro-Am, a four hour delay due to torrential rain provided the main story, but eventually James Jones (Tonbridge Golf Centre) shot a one-under-par 70 to edge out Jamie Harris (Nevill), Scott Stevens (Staplehurst) and Andy Raitt (St. George’s Hill) by one shot for the winner’s cheque.

Woodman’s first round 69 left him three strokes behind the first round leader Gregg Blainey (Bearwood Lakes). His second round got going with a birdie on the third and two more at the sixth and seventh to reach five-under-par. Knowing he needed something better, he headed into Sweetwoods’ back nine and on the 12th made another birdie.

This started a charge of five birdies to the 16th, and had he not three-putted the 17th for a bogey and missed a makeable 10 footer on the last hole, a 62 was on. Finishing nine-under-par, Woodman waited to see who could catch him at the top of the leaderboard.

Of the contenders who all had to deal with strong gusting winds amongst the tree-lined fairways, Newman was having a good final round as well. Four birdies on his opening nine got him to seven-under-par; another at the 10th and a final flourish at the 16th put him on nine-under-par to force a play off down the 18th with Woodman.

With Newman’s second shot finding sand the green was wide open, but Woodman’s shot was caught by a particularly strong gust and fell short, leaving a testing up and down. Newman splashed out to around 15 feet but missed the putt, while Woodman pitched to four feet and holed out to be crowned champion of The PGA in Sussex Open.

The VALR Order of Merit standings remain unchanged with Chris Gane (Lefthandedgolf@Silvermere) in the lead, Benn Barham (PGolfcoaching@Pedham) second and James Ablett (Lee-on-the-Solent) in third place, with Newman hard on his heels. The 2014 Money List remains the same, but with Harris in third spot with Newman chasing in fourth.