Sam Matton shows his metal

Matton Sprints to Mentmore win.

The Pro-Am on Sunday Sponsored by GreenFleets which preceded the main tournament was a huge success and local Pro Will Roebuck put his local knowledge to good use and won a total of £900 in prize money!

Roebuck would be hoping to carry on his good form into the tournament proper on Monday.

The first day was quite extraordinary in many respects, the scoring was very low and the number of players under par was extremely high.

The lowest 3 ball score in our history was achieved by Warren Bennett (65), James Watts (66) and Steve McAnally (66) scoring a total of 19 under par between them and that put them firmly at the top of the leader board alongside Jay Beisser and Sam Matton who also scored 6 under par totals.

At the end of the day a total of 31 players broke the par of 72 on the Mentmore  Rosebery course that was almost on third of the field. This reflects the high standard of the Professionals now playing The Jamega Tour.

With several players looking to take some form into the first stage of European Tour Qualifying at Frilford Heath next week it was going to be a fierce battle between the leaders on day two.

After a foggy start the players were presented with a perfect golfing day, brilliant warm autumn sunshine and with very little wind it was Steve McAnally who shot out of the blocks fastest birdying 2 of the first 3 holes with Matton and Bennett keeping in touch with birdies at the third hole. Matton then stumbled over the next few holes dropping back to 6 under par whilst Bennett improved his position to 9 under par to lead McAnally by 2 shots after nine holes.

They say that it’s the last nine holes are the nitty gritty of any tournament and so it proved to be. Matton bogeyed ten to seemingly drop out of contention at 5 under par whilst McAnally birdied eleven to move to 8 under par and to within one shot of Bennett.

Matton, meanwhile, would have to call on divine intervention to win now and with his caddie, nicknamed “Saint”, on the bag it seemed to work because Matton went on a birdie blitz from twelve onwards and after Bennett bogeyed the fourteenth and McAnally birdied the fifteenth to join Matton on 9 under it was going to be a battle to the end with 3 holes to play.

Whilst McAnally parred in Matton managed to pull another rabbit out of the hat and birdied the 17th to take the lead on 10 under par which was good enough to see him home as the winner.

Warren Bennett showed his class by birdying the 18th to tie Steve McAnally in second place to win £1,750 each

However it was Sam Matton who put the pedal to the metal over the last 7 holes at Mentmore and birdied 5 of them to race from a pedestrian 5 under par to top of the leader board on 10 under par and win his first Jamega Tour event and a cheque for £5,000.

The welcome at Mentmore was as usual fantastic with a welcoming clubhouse and two first class courses it is a must play venue and with great green fee deals available why not have a day out and enjoy yourselves.