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BDGA Tour Event #3 - Burnlaw Snowbow

The early pace was set by Burnlaw local Chris O’Brien with a blistering 1035 rated ten under the course par 47 on the Saturday morning, leaving himself 4 shots ahead of his nearest rival Jester Wilson of Croydon who shot a solid 51.

ll of the top five remained within touching distance and after the second round both Jester and Croydons Dan Ryan had pulled the lead back to 2 shots, with Derek Robins and Neil “Bruce” Webber still within touching distance.

The clocks moved forward in the night and all woke early to beautiful clear skies and blistering sunshine which energised the sun-loving Californian Dan Ryan, improving for the 3rd round in a row he shot a superb 47 to take a 3 shot lead into the final 9 holes.

In the tightest Open final in memory there were just 7 shots between the top five and all was to play for.  Derek Robins, desperate to win back the Dove after missing last years tournament, shot a 5 under par 25 which included missed putts from 5 meters.  With Jester, Bruce and Chris O’Brien all shooting solid 27’s it was down to Dan Ryan to hold his nerve to shoot a 1 under par 29 and pick up the win in front of the watching gallery. 

With the water tank drums rolling in the background Dan sank his putt to take his first ever British Tour event win and to crack open the Open division in this years British Tour. Derek’s strong final was good enough to grab him a joint second place with Jester.

The talk in the amateur division before the weekend had been all about the return of Ullapool’s Wee Ben Bruce from his 2 year absence from the tour.  At 13 he had been winning tour events,  what could the 15 year old not so wee Ben achieve?
 With both of the previous event winners in attendance Phil Wood of Croydon and Ben Foxall of Oxdisc the amateur division was also looking to be an incredibly tight affair at the top.

The early pace was set by Quarry Parks Jon Tweed,  having demolished the intermediate amateur division a the Spring Fling his confidence was high and he shot a flawless 54 to nudge the old master himself Derek Robins back onto the third card for the Saturday afternoon round.  Jon had opened up a 5 shot lead on his nearest rivals, the two Bens and Quarry Park Captain Rich Hatton all on 59 with Phil Wood one shot back on 60.

The pressure proved a little too much for Jon in the afternoon and where the morning round had provided reward for his risk the afternoon didn’t, leading to a 68 still leaving him in touching distance.  Wee Ben started to motor, shooting a 56 as his muscles  remembered how to play with huge drives and long putts a plenty.  Ben Foxall was nipping at his heels with a 57 with Rich Hatton and Phil Wood both shooting 60’s leaving themselves in contention.  Mark Davis also shot a solid 56 bringing himself back in after a poor 66 in the morning.

The beautiful Sunday morning bought the best out of Hatton, as he birdied three of the first 4 holes and went on to shoot the best am round of the day by 4 with a 56,  both Ben’s hit 62’s leaving them 2 and 3 shots back respectively with Phil Wood taking another 60, 5 shots back and Andy Cotgreave just scraping the final spot 7 shots back. 
 In front of the watching crowd and driving first, Hatton added to the pressure grabbing the only birdie on hole one and extending his lead,  Phil and Andy effectively took themselves out of the running with 5’s apiece on the first but both Bens were still in it with pars.  On the long 3rd hole, Ben Foxall nailed a great approach to take the three with Hatton and Bruce taking 4’s each after a great recovery from Bruce. 

Ben Foxall had an incredibly unlucky ricochet to go OB on the short hole 4 but still took his 3 as Ben Bruce nailed the birdie, Hatton having 2’d this every time so far got a roll away four to bring Bruce just one shot behind him.

On the long hole 5 – 6 Ben Bruce drove an unbelievable drive arrowing for the basket of 6 before clipping a branch and just dropping short but there for an easy 3,  Ben Foxall played a good drive to pick up a 4 and Hatton played safe to get his 4. 
 With things all square and Bruce having landed 10 meters from the basket of 7, Hatton went for the risky shot just clearing the OB fence but parking the hole for 2 to extend his lead. 

Hatton played steadily over the next three holes and was 2 shots up going into the 18th with both Bens 2 shots back.  Poor drives from all the finalists into a sudden an unexpected headwind left  Hatton with what looked like a 2 putt for the win when up stepped Ben Foxall from 40 meters out whose approach for 3 arrowed into the left side of the chains before spitting out.  In front of the gallery Hatton instead of laying up went for the putt shanking it left,  then made the 4 meter return into the middle of the chains to win his first amateur tour title by one shot from Ben Foxall and 2 from Ben Bruce. 

The amateur division is now wide open with 3 different winners from 3 events.

In the Int Ams Chris Gill picked up his first tour win after steady golf all weekend, just holding off Chris Hughes with Sam Stevens of Croydon snatching 3rd and Tim Foxall and Blair Anderson making up the other two slots of the 6 hole final. 
 Another beautiful weekend at Burnlaw.

Other winners:

Ben Foxall, longest putt 20m on Hole 1 new raised basket position.
John Bruce, Longest Drive, Hole 14.
Blair Anderson, Closest to the Pin, Hole 12.
Charlie O’Brien from junior tees shot 62, 60, 58 and was awarded Spirit of the Game.