Warwickshire Golf
CREED WINS WHITWORTH TROPHY
The Senior Matchplay Championship Final was played at Coventry Golf Club with very impressive scoring from both finalists. But before we go to the final for this Championship the first two rounds are played either home or away at a time arranged by the competitors. For the full draw on who played who click here for the full draw.
The finalists qualifying through the matches were Warren Bladon (Kenilworth) and Stephen Creed (Stratford on Avon). This was fitting as they finished 1st and 2nd respectively in the Seniors Strokeplay Championship and as such were 1st and 2nd seeds in this event.
The match started HOT with an eagle from Warren and a birdie from Stephen on the first hole giving Warren the early lead. But Stephens putter stayed HOT and converted two more birdies on the 2nd and 3rd. As Warren managed to match the one on the 3rd the match was all square after 3.
After a couple of pars on the 4th, at the short 5th hole Stephens putt was conceded to give him a 1 up advantage, but the concession was quickly returned to Warren on the 6th to return all square.
On the next two holes Stephens putter was still warm with birdies on 7 and 8 taking him to 2up. But Warren was still in it with Stephen conceding his Eagle putt on the par 5 10th and a par on 11 being good enough to level the match once again.
This match started at 4:30pm and after a run of halved holes in pars and birdies, it was starting to feel like we were going to run out of daylight well before we found ourselves a Champion. With the match still all square up the long 16th hole Stephen found the fairway again with Warren in the semi rough down the right hand side. Stephen hit his second shot to 60 yards from the green and Warren managed to slide his second shot round the branches of some trees to finish just short of the right green side bunker.
Stephen hit his pitch well but it didn't react quite as expected to leave a testing putt for birdie. After seeing Stephens pitch Warren misjudged his on the opposing side of the hole and missed his birdie putt. Stephens putter hadn't cooled down where he holed another birdie and took a one hole lead with two to play.
Stood on the par 3 17th tee the light was definitely dwindling, Stephen having the honour hit his just through the green on the right hand side with the slope just taking the ball below green level. Warren's ball finished to the right of the green a little further away than Stephen and as the pin was cut to on the right hand side and green running away from him, he found himself with a tricky chip that he couldn't get close. Stephen managed to drop his chip with enough control to be given his par. Unfortunately, Warren was unable to convert his par putt with it sliding by the hole meaning Stephen won the hole, the match 2&1 and the Championship.
The golf was so good to watch and so close for so long it felt like the final two holes happened in a flash, but the final score came as a result of some extremely good play from two tough competitors. Not counting any concessions there were 8 birdies and an eagle with a further conceded eagle over the 17 holes played which I think you will agree is golf being played at the highest order. It was the lowest matchplay final I have seen for a number of years with Stephen being around 5 under par after the 17th hole, but also one of the closest with Warren being 4 under and narrowly missing out.
Congratulations Stephen and commiserations to Warren. Many thanks once again go to Coventry Golf Club for permitting us to play this final over your course and to Club Professional, Martin Sutliff, for his help in managing the tee for us. The conditions of the course shone through and continued to impress. With that our thanks go to the green keeping staff for their efforts.
FOR PRESENTATION PHOTOS CLICK HERE
Matt Nixon
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