Friday, July 29, 2016

Campbell and Fox tied for fifth place in PGA 

championship and earn £2,025 each

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Anglo-Scot Ian Campbell (Cheshunt Park) and Graham Fox (Clydeway Golf) earned £2,025 apiece for a joint fifth finish in the PGA professional championship won by Irishman David Higgins at The Oxfordshire Golf Club today.
Campbell shot rounds of 69, 72, 69, 72  and Fox 69,68, 72 and 73 for six-under-par aggregates of 282 - nine behind Higgins who won the £10,000 top prize by three strokes with scores of 69, 66, 72 and 66 for 15-under 273.
Greig Hutcheon (PLGC Inchmarlo) was more like his old self with a closing 71 - four shots better than his error-strewn third round. He finished on 286 for a share of 21st place and a cheque for £800.
Welshman Gareth Wright (West Linton) earned £565 for a T31 finish on 289 after a closing round of 73.
Graham Brown (Montrose Links) improved from a disastrous third-round 81 to a sparkling final round of 69 for a T35 finish on 290 for which he received £501.  

PGA PROFESSIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
The Oxfordshire Golf Club
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72)
273 D Higgins (Ire) 69 66 72 66 (£10,000)
276 A Raitt (Eng) 63 77 69 67 (£6,420).
280 P Hendriksen (Eng) 71 68 70 71, S Brown (Eng) 69 70 69 72 (£3,975 each)

SELECTED TOTALS
282 I Campbell (Cheshunt Park) 69 72 69 72, G Fox (Clydeway Golf) 69 68 72 73 (T5) (£2,025 each)
286 G Hutcheon (PLGC Inchmarlo) 70 70 75 71 (T21) (£800)
289 G Wright (West Linton) 71 74 71 73 (T31) (£565)
290 G Brown (Montrose Links) 69 71 81 69 (£501).


IRISH ACE TAKES ROUTE 66 TO LAND TITLEIST and FOOTJOY TITLE
PGA NEWS RELEASE
By NATHANIEL SYLVESTER
Ireland’s David Higgins withstood the charging Andy Raitt to run out a convincing winner of the Titleist and FootJoy PGA Professional Championship at The Oxfordshire.
The Waterville Links pro from Co. Kerry carded his second 66 of the week to post a 15 under par total of 273 and a three-stroke victory over Raitt who fired a 67.
Higgins admitted to a few nerves but any jitters were alleviated by a devastating burst of birdies around the turn with gains at 10, 12, 13 and 14 helping him to a six-under-par final round.
“I had a lovely chip-in on 10, a good par save on 11, then holed a 25 footer on 12, a 20 footer on 13 and then a 15 footer on 14,” said Higgins.
“Those were the ones I wasn’t getting yesterday but today – bang – right in the middle.”
“You just keep pushing, you don’t get chances like this very often so I did great, I made a few birdies but said to myself don’t stop because there is going to be other guys doing it and I did that so I was very proud.”
Higgins, who pocketed a cheque for £10,000 cheque and the use of a Peugeot 308 GT for a year, rated his triumph as one of the best his career and he gave himself a pat on the back for the way he handled the pressure.
“I’m delighted because I was very nervous. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a tournament this big so to come out on the right end is great,” he added.
“It must have been 12 or 14 years or something since I won something like this so you have to enjoy these. They don’t come along very often and I will enjoy it.
“Everyone at Waterville will be delighted. There will be a few pints drunk tonight because this is a big event and to win it is great for all of Irish golf.”
An absorbing final round of the £78,000 event saw several players in contention at various stages but it was Raitt who was to emerge as Higgins’ most serious rival.
And the St George’s Hill pro must have fancied his chances after birdieing the 10th and eagling the 11th for the third time in the week.
However when he checked the leaderboard on 17, Raitt realised it was game over and he was left to rue a second-round 77 which included a quadruple bogey on the ninth where he lost two balls off the tee.
“The back nine on Wednesday for the 77 felt like the hardest nine I played all week because of what had happened before at nine
“But I played better today and David played great so fair dues,” reflected Raitt who has the consolation of qualifying for the end of season PGA Play-Offs at Saunton in October.
 “I really love this golf course, I played the Benson and Hedges here a few years ago, then gave up golf for a couple of years when I came off tour.
“But I ended up coming back here to The Oxfordshire for the first time when they had a regional event and I played well and managed to win that and it got me back into golf so I owe a lot to this place. I really like it.”
Defending champion Paul Hendriksen (Ivybridge) shared third spot alongside Thorpe Wood’s Stuart Brown on eight under with Lee Clarke, Liam Bond, Guy Woodman, Andrew Willey, Ian Campbell and Graham Fox tied fifth at six under for the championship.

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