Golfshake.com Open 2009 - Final Winners

By: Darren Ramowski | Mon 21 Sep 2009

After 8 events spanning 6 months and with over 300 people taking part in the regional qualifiers at 8 courses across the country from 2 handicap categories, 30 finalists took park in the Golfshake.com Open at De Vere Wychwood Park on Saturday the 19th September.

Almost half the field had ventured up the day before to test out the course and take advantage of some great deals from Golfbreaks.com and De Vere to stay over and play the course and the fantastic venue and facilities that Wychwood Park offers.

The Golfshake.com team arrived early on Saturday morning to be greeted by 30 eager competitors all eager and keen to play their part and battle with what the course had to offer. Before commencing play, Jon Farmer the PGA Pro presented a course briefing offering some tips and advice on how to play the course, what to watch out for and those elusive tiger lines for the more aggressive players.

The first group were announced on to the tee by the on course Marshall and duly teed off at 11:00 and was made up of Alfred Pickard representing the South East, Craig Peters from the East Midlands and 2 golfshake.com representatives. 9 further groups were then announced on to the tee and teed off in 4 balls made up of 3 regional finalists and 1 non competing golfshake.com representative.

It wasn't long before the course was changing the tactics of several players from their usual game and ensuring all thought about how they played the shot and each individual hole rather than a hit it and rip it approach. The weather pretty much held out throughout the day with very little wind so the only factor facing the players was the course it's self. Despite a couple of players carding 36+ points on the practice day for 18 holes, for the final after 9 holes the general scoring was around the 14 point mark with only a few players really getting above this.

All the pre game build up and discussions had been around who would eventually win and with the final being played off 3/4 handicaps the thought was that a low handicap player would walk away with the prizes. Much of the talk centred around a few single figure golfers including Martin Millichip, especially after carding 36 points on Friday, and David Ley although a few comments had been made by some of the low teen golfers as well.

With the first 4 groups back in it really was a game of 2 halves with Craig Peters from the 1st group playing off 10 recording 17 on the front 9 and then suffering a bad turn especially around Wychwood Parks Amen corner and recording a total of 23 points. Several players at this point were holding the top places with 26 points.

The agony continued with many players suffering to the hands of the Wychwood Amen corner of 13, 14, 15 and 16 with many players coming back in with 17/18 points on the front 9 but single figure points for the back 9.

One player though played consistent golf throughout and ended up the eventual winner after countback and the trophy and honour went to Lionel Roberts from the East Midlands who qualified through the high handicap category shooting 33 points off 14 shots from his 19 handicap.

Stephen Martin narrowly missed out also carding 33 points but being beat in to top spot on countback, if only he had scored on the final 18th hole. Stephen again qualified through the high handicap category from the Yorkshire region.

In 4th place overall but top from the low handicap qualifiers was Mark Seymour who qualified in the South West playing his home course of Donnington Grove.

All players received a break at a De Vere venue and further prizes courtesy of Golfbreaks.com and Bunker Mentality.

The highest scoring front 9 with 18 points went to David Roth and Steve Johnson took the back 9 honours with 19 points

The overall best region based on the 3 highest scores goes to the Yorkshire region with a combined score of 87 points made up of Stephen Martin, Darren Millichip, Stephen Slack and Les Barnard.

Wychwood Park posed a true test of golf and made a fantastic challenge for those competing in the golfshake.com Open. All those taking part thoroughly enjoyed the course and David Ley commented 'Great course and one I would love to play again and definitely play differently'.

Thanks goes to the sponsors during 2009, all the players taking part, De Vere Wychwood Park for making it a great day with an exceptionally big thank you for the regional organisers and those helping on the day.

Finally a notable mention goes to Tim Hawkins who won his first event, having taken part in 15+ golfshake.com events over the year, in winning the Organisers Cup.

Top 10 scores - Lionel Roberts (14) 33 pts, Steve Martin (19) 33 pts, Anthony kempsell (16) 32 pts, Mark Seymour (13) 31 pts, Darren Millichip (8) 28 pts, Steve Johnson (19) 27 pts, David Roth (13) 27 pts, Wayne Santorini (11) 26 pts, Stephen Slack (13) 26 pts, Alan Davidson (11) 26 pts. Full scores can be round here - /golf/view/11/scores/ for photo can be seen here - http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/gforceevents/GolfShakeOpen2009#

Until 2010!