Derek Robins came out on top of the toughest Open division seen for many years at the opening event of the British Tour Season. 

The current British Champion saw off fierce competition from a host of top players most notably newcomer to the Open division Jed Farrell.  Unlucky not to be crowned Amateur champion last year he led the Open division after two rounds on Saturday with two impressive scores of 54 and 55 which left him 1 shot in front of Derek with two solid 55’s. 

With Derek and Matt playing their usual consistent golf the real battle of the final was between Jed and Jester for the third place.  After finishing the first round back in 14^th position Jester had steadily moved up the field over the weekend and no doubt was letting the younger Jed know he was close behind him!   The two went into the last hole Goolagong on level pegging.  Jed was first up and threw a lovely drive across the pond and 6 meters to the right of the hole.  Jester’s drive fell short but due to the nature of the beast that is “Frostbreaker”  the pond was partially frozen over. His disc skipped to the other side hitting the bank before landing back OB within reach of an easy OB 3 and a score that would tie with Del's as the best over the final nine holes. 

Jed needing the birdie for third place in front of the watching gallery made what looked like a great putt, it hit the chains skimmed off the rim of the basket and landed in the water OB. Jester made his putt to take the third place. It looks like Jed will be a force to be reckoned with in the Open division over the next few years.  The two other young newcomers James Luton and Rick “Rick” Murphy, to the Open division this year both also had good weekends finishing just off the back of the Open finals. 

The advanced Amateur division was led by 6 shots by Pete “Village” Black, (former intermediate amateur winner of the British Open.) going into Sundays round.  A storming score of 59 by local Patrick Green and a return to form from Pete with a 71 swapped the positions going into the final with the other places made up by Simon Fox, Paul Stoddart and Sophie Southgate.  Patrick shot a final nine worthy of the Open division to hold onto first place,  Pete, Paul and Sophie all shot solid rounds to keep their places and Simon Fox shot a strong round of 30 to take second place,  not bad for a player who hadn’t played since the same time last year!

The intermediate amateur division was dominated by two players.  Due to bad course management on the first round and the usual putting yips throughout, the strong favourite going into the event Rich Hatton found himself 20 shots behind Ian Everett-Kelway and Dan Eagles at the start of the final.

Ian and Dan were neck and neck throughout their three rounds and had they been in the advanced amateur division would have entered the final in second and third place respectively.  The final started with Dan 1 shot behind Ian, this was quickly overturned with a birdie by Dan on the first hole.  The lead then swapped backwards and forwards until with one hole to go Ian took a birdie with Dan only managing a four.  Ian played safe on Goolagong and having approached and putted superbly all weekend Dan needed a hole in one to force the game into a playoff.

His drive shaped beautifully and looked like it was going to be close until a branch no-one had seen plucked the disc out of the air as it crossed the pond and threw it OB giving Ian the win.  High quality golf was played by both competitors throughout and more will certainly be seen of both of them. 

Full results will be posted shortly and the next tournament to be held at Whitcombe will be the 2010 British Open.