Warwickshire Golf
LUKE LIFTS THE MATCHPLAY TROPHY
The Warwickshire Mens Matchplay Championship was played at Handsworth Golf Club where a number of fine battles took place over the two days of matches.
In round one at the top of the order Josh Davenport (Maxstoke Park) lost to JP Banbury (Moor Hall) 3&2 and Sam Easterbrook (Wishaw) lost to Richard Bush (Coventry) 6&5. The semi final between JP and Richard was an extremely tight affair with Richard leading most of the way, but JP managing to get the match to all square on the 18th and then proceeded to win the 19th hole to grab a spot in the final.
In the other half of the draw the matches were just as tight, with Rob Bardsley (Moor Hall) losing narrowly to Luke Allen (Olton) by 2 holes. Fourteen year old Ryan Gavin (Coventry) beating County Captain Karl Smith 2&1. Not wanting to miss out on any of the holes round Handsworth Ryan took Luke all the way to the 18th hole again with Luke managing to win the hole and the match.
The final for the TP Cooke Challenge Cup is over 36 holes and was played in great spirit throughout. The scores between the players were very well matched with lots of par golf and 11 holes out of the morning round were halved! However, over the other 7 holes, Luke was that little bit more consistent and found himself 2 up after 9 holes and 3 up after 14. JP did manage to snatch one hole back at the 17th but a birdie for Luke on 18 gave him a handsome 3 hole lead at lunch.
After a quick lunch JP won the first hole to try and eat into the deficit, and although JP lost the 3rd hole he converted a couple of birdies and pars to the 9th hole where both players had a bit of a wobble with JP winning the hole with a double bogey 6 which was good enough to return the score to all square with 9 holes to play.
Luke hit back on the 10th with a birdie and some very consistent golf and another birdie on the 13th where he had gathered a 3 hole lead on JP. Adding to the script, JP hit back with two great birdies on the 15th and 16th which were not matched by Luke, and a par from both of them on the 17th hole meant the match was going down the last hole again... Luke does seem to like playing every hole on the course!
JP drove the ball first down the right side of the fairway into the semi rough and Luke hit a high ball to the right which found the opposing fairway. Luke managed to get enough hight to hit his ball up and over the bordering trees and found the fairway leaving around 120 yards to the hole. JP opted for an all or nothing approach and took a small fairway wood and hit a fantastic shot on to the fringe of the green in two.
Luke hitting his third shot managed to find the green and left himself a testing 20 footer to the left of the flag. JP putted first and walked off with a birdie four. At this point I must confess I did check the first tee to see if it was clear to go to the 19th hole, however Luke hit a great putt and matched JP's birdie to win the Warwickshire Mens Matchplay Championship by 1 hole.
Well done Luke and commiserations JP it was a great match to watch. Our thanks go again to Handsworth Golf Club for hosting this event and to Mick Jones for assisting in the presentations. Thank you also to Alastair Scott for refereeing the matches.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL DRAW
Matt Nixon
Created by intelligentgolf version 10.1.2.
