Woosie upstaged by Aussie Clayton in Jersey

By Gordon Simpson, Press Officer
Australian Mike Clayton upstaged Jersey resident Ian Woosnam with a blistering eight under par 64 to lead the field by three strokes after the opening round of the Jersey Seniors Classic at La Moye Golf Club.
The 52 year old from Melbourne, who nowadays concentrates on golf course design, contemplated spending a month on the European Senior Tour as the ‘credit crunch’ created a lull in his business life.
His decision to resume his playing career was then reinforced when he discovered that in successive weeks the Senior Tour would be visiting Ballybunion, La Moye and Royal Porthcawl.
As Woosnam, an Honorary Member of La Moye, struggled with his concentration and carded a two under par 70, Clayton revived memories of links golf in the UK by grabbing nine birdies on his way to creating daylight between himself and England’s Nick Job, who shot 67.
Clayton, who won the 1984 Timex Open on The European Tour, did not compete at all in 2008 and admitted: “At the time, I was occupied by my course design business and re-designing The Lakes in Sydney for next year’s Australian Open.
“However, the downturn has hit most people and I realised I wasn’t going to be very busy over the next few weeks so decided to fly over when I heard about the great venues the Senior Tour is visiting.
“I just love it when we play fantastic links courses. I thought I played decently at Ballybunion last week but didn’t really expect this today. It just shows what an impossible game golf can be at times.”
After wracking his brain, Clayton recalled that his last 64 came in the Australian Masters at Huntingdale in 1990. Almost two decades later, the putts dropped, the birdies flowed and Clayton equalled Sam Torrance’s three shot advantage after 18 holes in Barbados.
Woosnam, aiming for back to back victories on the Senior Tour after his superb play-off success over American Bob Boyd in Sunday’s Irish Seniors Open in association with Failte Ireland and AIB Bank, was frustrated by dropping two shots in the last three holes.
“It was hard to concentrate” admitted the former Masters Champion, who has lived on Jersey for a number of years. “There are no ropes out there and people were getting very close and asking for pictures on the way round. However that is not an excuse. Having got to four under I should have kicked on.
“The key is to keep the ball in play here. If you get position off the tee you can put together a decent score. If you don’t, it’s easy to rack up a 78 or 79.”
Job, who reeled off seven birdies but had two bogeys, including a dropped shot at the last, said: “I played nicely but it was harder from seeing Mike Clayton’s score before I teed off. I felt like going to ask him how he did it!”
England’s Roger Chapman, who has finished third twice in three starts since turning 50, eagled the sixth from 25 feet on his way to a 68. He shares that mark with England’s Kevin Spurgeon, Northern Ireland’s Jimmy Heggarty, Pete Oakley of the United States and Chile’s Guillermo Encina.
Meanwhile the Pro-Am part of the event continued with the second round out of three. After 36 holes, the team of Jim Rhodes and amateur Charlie Fortune lead on 23 under par.