Cort tops Order of Merit for sixth time in 11 years

TWO county golf professionals have had outstanding seasons in this year’s Midland PGA Order of Merit championships, writes Jennifer Prentice.

All four counting tournaments have now been completed.

Matthew Cort (Beedles Lake), below, finished top of the table for the sixth time in the last 11 years.

But a stirring performance by Craig Shave (Whetstone) in the fourth and final event of the OOM schedule – the E.H. Smith Midland Professional Championship – saw him claim fourth spot and puts him in a strong position for starts in next season’s top tournaments.

Cort had a total of 877.50 points in the OOM.

He led from Simon Lilly (Staverton Park) who had 770 points, with Adam Keogh (Woodhall Spa) on 743.33 pts third and Shave with 700.33 points in fourth.

Shave tied second with Lilly in the Midland Professional Championship contested over two days at Moseley GC with their sixunder 134 aggregate. They were one stroke behind the winner Keogh.

After his five-under-par 36-holes return, Cort finished in joint fourth with

Andrew Jones (Redditch). Michael Chambers (Market Harbrough) carded one-under and shared eighth place.

Shave bounded up the leaderboard in his exciting second session as he chased OOM points. He said: “I felt I had a chance of taking third position in the OOM table if I went low.” He opened with three-under, and was level par 35 to the turn in round two. After another birdie at 12, he had an eagle two at the par four 17th, before he birdied the last.

Shave had won one of the 2021 OOM championships.

This was the Morley Hayes event when he was successful in a play-off after he tied on nineunder-par there with his 65-70 cards.

Cort, meanwhile, had several high finishes in the counting competitions to seal the season-long title again.

He was joint second in the Oakmere Park tournament, joint runnerup in the Glazerite Trophy at Wellingborough, tied fourth at Morley Hayes, and also shared fourth place in the Midland Professional Championship at Moseley a few days ago.

Immediately after the Midland Pros, Cort went to play at Ilkley GC, accepting an invitation to compete in the over 40-strong field of mainly senior golfers in a tournament backed by former Masters champion Ian Woosnam.

Cort was playing the course for the first time, but had a full playing practise session, and ended second in the tournament itself on the main second day with his four-under-par 65 round. This included five birdies and only one bogey.

Former Tour pro Liam Bond on five-under finished first and past Ryder Cup captain Mark James, a European Tour regular for many years and an Ilkley GC member, ended on two-under-par.

Gary Wolstenholme, the former leading county and England amateur before turning pro, was level par.

Cort said: “Ilkley is a very attractive golf course. I loved it. I was one of the youngest in the field, but it was a great event and I hope to be able to play more of them in the future.

“There was a lovely atmosphere and I really enjoyed my two days there.”

In both 2017 and 2019, Cort was a PGA Cup golfer in the matches against the USA.

The match was originally set to be played again this season, but has been postponed due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.