The BB&O Champion Club took place at Burford Golf Club on Friday 3rd July with gorgeous sunshine and a pristine course it was set to be a fantastic event. Archie Sollis had a fantastic start for Tadmarton Heath after shooting -2 closely followed by team mate Freddie Wheeler on -1. It was all excitement for a later group as Sam Mitten (East Berkshire) holed out for eagle from 130 yards and immediately after Bradley Tuckett (Calcot Park) got a hole in one on the next hole. Alex Stubbs (The Oxfordshire) had a flurry of birdies to take a 1 shot lead in the Courage Trophy ahead of Archie and Matt McGrory (Denham). With 15 players all within 5 shots of the lead it was set to be a dramatic finish to the event.
Matthew Gough (The Springs) got -3 on his back nine to bring The Springs back into contention as fellow team mate Ollie O’Dell shot level par. Burford used their home advantage as Jamie Cook, Rob Langton & Jonathan Wilks all played steady to finish at +5 as a team after 18 holes. However the performances from Archie & Freddie along with third team member, Lewis Bullard, proved strong enough to take the clubhouse lead as they sat 4 shots ahead on +1. It was all to play for in the afternoon as the format of all three scores to count from the team meant that every shot mattered.
The pressure was on in the afternoon for the players to continue their hot form. Freddie, Archie and Lewis couldn’t match their scores from the morning resulting in the team finishing on +15. Jamie had an eagle and 3 birdies on his way to shooting 68 (-3) to throw himself in contention for the Courage Trophy. Jamie’s superb afternoon round coupled with the steady rounds from Rob and Jonathan moved Burford on to a team total of +12 after 36 holes. Woburn needed a strong finish to match Burford but came up shy. With only 2 groups left to finish Goring & Streatley had an outside chance to sneak the trophy with Henry Drake coming up 1 shot shy of the number needed finishing on -2 for his afternoon round.
Alex continued his fine form on the first nine of his afternoon round however too may dropped shots coming in dropped him down to 6th. Connor Jacob (Goring & Streatley) shot a pair of 70’s to finish on -2 for the event however Jamie’s final 18 secured him the victory on count back! Congratulations to Jamie on lifting the Courage Trophy.
Congratulations to Burford on being crowned BB&O Champion Club for the second time – their only other victory in 1975! Burford go on to represent BB&O in the national final in September so we wish them the best of luck!
Click here to view the final results.
