Another win for Hall in PGA series
LYDIA Hall last week pulled off a fourth PGA One-Day Series victory of the summer in winning the Chestfield event by one-shot, writes Tony Poole.
Though Lydia from Pencoed was pleased with her latest PGA success, shooting a oneunder par round of 70 on the Whitstable golf course in Kent, she felt it could have been a lot better.
“The score should have been better than 70, as I was playing solid golf and was four-under par after 10 holes,” she explained. “So, I came off the golf course a little disappointed after playing poor shots over seven holes. It meant I wanted to finish strong and ultimately the birdie on the home hole was a tournament clincher.’’
Her one-shot victory was over Catherine Panton-Lewis of the Berkshire club and Sian Evans from Kings Hill in Kent.
Owing to European Tour action, Lydia will miss the next PGA event at the Salisbury & South Wiltshire club.
Her next engagement in this competition is likely to be the South Hertfordshire tournament at the end of the month.
She holds fourth spot on the PGA England & Wales (South West) circuit with 362 points.
Sion Bebb (Morlais Castle) tops the table with 445 points from Michael Whitson (Wessex Golf Centre) 430 and Christopher Gill (Newquay) 406.
Lydia then moved on to the Ladies Scottish Open at the Dundonald Links – and failed to make the halfway cut.
Rounds of 77 and 74 for a seven-over par score of 151 saw her finish two shots under the dreaded dotted line.
Lydia was two shots in front of New Zealand superstar Lydia Ko, last year’s European Tour player-of-the-year Beth Allen and Dame Laura Davies.
The tournament was won by Mi Hyang Lee with a six-under par score of 282 via rounds of 73, 75, 68 and 66.
She won by one shot over South Korean colleague Mi Jung Hur, who signed for rounds of 74, 71, 72 and 66 to get a total of 283.
Also, on 283 was evergreen Aussie campaigner Karrie Webb, who completed rounds of 65, 75, 70 and 73.
WELSH BOYS MATCHPLAY CHAMPIONSHIP
MORGAN Grace and Jamie Pickering were the most successful of the local young golfers during the Welsh Boys Match Play Championship at Bull Bay on Anglesey.
Grace (Southerndown) fought his way through to the quarter-final stage before bowing out, 5 & 3, to George Bryant of the Staddon Heights club in Plymouth.
And at the same stage Pickering (Royal Porthcawl) lost out, 2 & 1, against Ben Hicks from the Parc club in the Cardiff suburbs.
During the Strokeplay part of the competition, Grace finished 11th, shooting rounds of 73 and 77 for a ten-over par score of 150.
The Medallist recipient was Thomas Meadows (Oswestry), who came in with a six-over par total of 146 via back-to-back rounds of 73.
Thomas Froom (Nefyn & District) also shot 146 while Tom Peet (Pyle & Kenfig) signed for scores of 73 and 74 to close in third spot on 147.
Just one shot behind came Pickering while there was one other local qualifier for the Matchplay category – Ben Davies (Southerndown) who was 13th on 151.
The wrong side of the cut-off line were Ioan Consitt 156, Ronan Oliver (both Pyle & Kenfig) 158, Jack Wiggins (Southerndown) 160 and Sean David (Pyle & Kenfig) 168.
In the round of 16 players, Pickering met Davies and it was the Royal Porthcawl player who won the day, triumphing 3 & 2.
Amazing Grace swept to a one-hole win over Ryan Nedza (Neath) before both Pickering and Grace went out in the quarter-finals.
The title made its way down to beautiful Pembrokeshire with Luke Harries of the Tenby club defeating Harry Frazer (Pennard) on the first extra hole. Later in the month, young Harries will represent Wales in the British Boys equivalent event in Scotland.