Overseas Pro-Am

Date 9th - 14th February 2007

                                            

The Northants P.G.A.’s annual European Pro – Am returned to the Algarve and was once again generously sponsored by Phil Thomas of ‘Belmont Press’ in Northampton. The event over four rounds featured 17 teams accompanied by their professional. The Professionals played a four round medal competition, whilst the amateurs contribute scores to count towards the team event.

The event used four courses, Vila Sol on days 1 and 4 and the Millennium and Victoria Courses on days 2 and 3.

Carl Sainsbury (Brampton Heath) shot 2 under par around Vila Sol after day 1 to have a 2 shot lead over Shane Rose (Cold Ashby) and Tony Taylor (Macclesfield). In the team event Joe Wilson (Wellingborough) with amateurs Mike Gilbrook, John McGowan and James Musson set the early pace with 10 under par round of 134.

After round two at Millennium Shane Rose had move into contention shooting 69 –3, Carl continued his good form with another sub par round of 70-2 and retained a two shot lead. The team event for the day was dominated by Tony Taylor’s team who shot a stunning 20 under par six better than the next team.

At the World Cup venue of Victoria only two players shot under par Tim Maxwell (Mottram Hall) 70 –2 and Shane Rose 71 -1 and a new competition leader was established. Carl Sainsbury shot 75 and Tony Taylor continued to play his part with a steady 73. The team event on the day was clearly won by Tim Maxwell’s team with an outstanding round of 128 -16, four better than Joe Wilson’s team.

Going into the last day back at Vila Sol Shane Rose took into the last round a three shot lead closely followed by Carl Sainsbury, Tim Maxwell and Tony Taylor. As the day unravelled Shane 76 and Tim 72 were unable to break par, leaving Tony Taylor 69-3 and Carl Sainsbury 70-2 level on 286 minus two for the competition.

A play off was needed to decide the winner of the 2007 event, this was to be sudden death over holes 1 & 9. A good crowd assembled to watch this tense climax to the week. Tony Taylor won the toss and played first, after steady tee shots both players were in the left semi, with awkward shots to the green hampered buy trees ahead of them. Tony playing first came up short in the semi below the green; Carl played longer to the back of the green and finished in the second cut above the flag. Neither had easy chips Tony ended up above the flag twelve foot away, Carl’s chip came up short above the hole leaving him to putt first. His putt slid by the side of the hole, Tony then holed a well paced putt of about 9 feet to take the title.

This clinched the double for Tony’s team who dominated the event closing 20 under par; Tim Maxwell was second and the teams local Professional’s Joe Wilson and Shane Rose finished 4^th and 5^th respectively. The winning team on the last day with a great score of 130 was Ed Chapman (Overstone Park) with amateurs Dave Watson, Richard Rice and Craig Windsor.

 

Thanks go to all professional players and their amateurs for making this a great week once again and to Belmont Press for their continued support.