Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Wallis lifts Southern title
Golf
Canterbury’s Richard Wallis overcame a two-hole play-off to record another victory in the PGA Southern Open Championship.
Wallis previously claimed the title in 2010 and 2011 but had to produce some magic to win the play-off to complete his hat-trick after rounds of 65 and 69 gave him an eight-underpar total of 134.
After making a six-under-par 65 around a fiery Cuddington course hardened by weeks of warm weather, Wallis led the first round with Pentland Golf’s Benn Barham.
Wallis admitted to nerves as he teed off for the final round. He said: “I was quite nervous, as I haven’t been in the hunt at a major for some while.
“I made two birdies down the first and second but things went a bit pearshaped at five and six where I made bogey then lost a ball for a double.”
But the four-time Virgin Atlantic PGA South Order of Merit champion bounced right back with two birdies at the eighth and ninth.
Another at the 12th and then the 17th put him a shot in front but a bogey up the 18th left Wallis tied with Sittingbourne’s Peter Appleyard after his second round 66.
Wallis added: “We had brief spells of rain interrupt things four times, so Peter’s 66 looked amazing. It was linksy out there, so we were trying to land shots short and hope for the right bounce.”
In the play-off, down the par-5 first, both players needed just an 8-iron for their second shots from semi-rough.
Appleyard did well to get up and down to stay level with Wallis’s two-putt par. Up the 18th, Wallis’ drive kicked hard left leaving him in a dell and having to get a 137-yard shot airborne fast while keeping it below the bows of the trees in front and turning leftwards back to the green.
Committed to making the shot, Wallis made a great recovery to finish 10 feet away pin high.
Appleyard’s wedge left him a 30-footer sliding downhill left, which rolled six feet past. Seeing the speed, Wallis allowed three feet of break and holed for three to snatch the title and a £ 2,000 cheque.
Wallis’ win extended his PGA South Money List lead and move him up the Virgin Atlantic PGA South Order of Merit standings. Wallis and the rest of the South Region’s PGA professionals are eyeing up the next Order of Merit event, the PGA Surrey Open Championship, at Clandon Regis on July 27-28.