Ford mounts a recovery Down Under
Golf
Bearsted’s Matt Ford opened his 2017 European Tour season last week. Ford finished joint 31st at the Australian PGA Championship in Queensland with a final total of two under par. Ford recovered from an opening day 75 to post rounds of 71, 70 and 70 – enough to earn him prize money of more than 8,000 euros. Meanwhile, King’s Hill’s Sian Evans has been named the PGA in England (South) assistant of the year. Evans finished just outside the top 50 of the Regional Order of Merit, 10th in the Regional Assistants’ Order of Merit and fifth in the WPGA Series, including three top-five finishes and a victory. Evans, who was tied first at one of the Order of Merit qualifying schools, fifth in the WPGA Series won both the Kent Trainees Championship and the Kent PGA Closed Championship, beating three men in a four-way play-off. Evans also passed her Year 2 trainee exams in April with merit and has given particular support to juniors at her King’s Hill base. David Copsey (Poult Wood) battled the elements at Littlestone in the second Winter Series event, shooting a twoover-par 73 to beat Bruce MacDonald by one shot. Out in level par with two birdies, Copsey fought hard to keep the bogeys off his card but had to settle for three of them on what was a testing back nine. Needing a birdie four to win on the final hole, Copsey duly obliged and took the winner’s cheque of £ 350. Copsey said: “It’s been a pretty good year with some useful results, and it was a good win under difficult circumstances.”