DAVID LANE COMES FROM

SIX BEHIND TO WIN

ENGLISH SENIORS TITLE

FOR THIRD TIME

FROM THE ENGLISH GOLF UNION WEBSITE

Former Scottish senior open amateur title-winner David Lane (Goring & Streatley) secured his third English senior men's championship at Enville today when he came from six shots back to beat overnight leaders Chris Reynolds and Alan Squires.
A closing round of 69 over the Highgate Course, the best of the day, for 218, four over par, left Lane (pictured right) three strokes ahead of Reynolds and four clear of Squires.
Lane, whose previous victories in this championship came at West Hill in 1997 and two years later at Shifnal, felt a third win was beyond his powers at 65 years of age.
“I felt I was past it with all these younger guys coming along, but I decided to go out and attack because I had nothing to lose - and it worked,” he said.
Although David finished fourth in the Irish seniors and runner-up in the "Scottish" in recent weeks, Lane arrived at Enville admitting he was scrambling and forecasting that he was not going to be in the hunt.
That seemed to be the situation when he teed-off the third round lying fourth, six strokes behind his rivals. But the picture soon began to change as the two leaders began spilling shots. At the turn, Lane was still two strokes adrift of Reynolds but the Kent man began tangling with the trees while Squires seemed to be the man to watch.
While Lane powered on to get to five over with one hole to play, both Reynolds and Squires were having to do the chasing. Lane put more pressure on when he secured a birdie 4 at the last, thanks to a sand wedge to five feet and a crucial putt.
That left Squires, who had holed a monster putt from across the 17th green to stay two adrift, needing an eagle at the last to tie. In the event he took a double-bogey 7 after firing his second shot into a bush and taking a penalty drop.
That also cost him second place as he returned 79 for an eight-over-par final total while Reynolds parred his way in from the 15th for 78 and the runners-up spot.
“I’m disappointed not to win but I’m more disappointed not to finish runner-up,” said Squires. “But Chris and I were not good enough. David played well and deserved it.”
Reynolds was equally disappointed. “I felt a 74 would be good enough but even that wouldn’t have done it,” he said. “My putting held up but I couldn’t keep out of the trees. I expected someone to break through and I’m glad it was David.”
With four-time champion Roy Smethurst in fourth place on 223 after a level-par 72, it meant the leading four players were all members of last year’s England senior home international side. Lane now sets his sights on the European title in Portugal next week and on this form you couldn’t bet against him.
“I played good golf today for the first time in weeks,” he admitted. “It is tremendous to win again and the icing on the cake was the sand wedge to five feet on the 18th. I’ve won again because my putting has improved but I don’t know why. I just decided not to leave anything short but it does leave you some tricky three-footers coming back.”
LEADING FINAL TOTALS

Par 214

218 D Lane (Goring & Streatley 76 73 69.

221 C Reynolds (Littlestone) 68 75 78.

222 A Squires (Oldham) 70 73 79.

223 R Smethurst (Crewe) 75 76 72.

224 A Morrison (Appleby) 77 75 72, J Jermine (Sunningdale) 73 77 74.

225 S Smale (Royal St George's) 74 74 77.

227 B Wallace (Crosland Heath) 72 79 76, C Boal (Broadstone) 74 76 77.

228 D McCart (Sherwood Forest) 81 73 74, D Arnold (Copthorne) 73 78 77.

229 G Steel (Moor Park) 78 75 76, G Reynolds (Ludlow) 79 74 76, P Groocock (Blackmoor) 78 74 77, H Moxon (Royal Cinque Ports) 77 74 78.