Kent Golf Limited
The Kent Amateur Championship 2013 at Bearsted Golf Club
Plant wins Kent Amateur Championship
Last Friday, 72 of the County’s top amateur golfers drawn from the County’s 88 clubs, met at Bearsted Golf Club near Maidstone to compete for the Kent Golf Union’s premier tournament for club golfers, The Kent Amateur Championship. This year’s tournament was in a new format of four rounds of stroke play golf played over two days, the field being cut after the two rounds on Friday to 32 and ties which played a further 36 holes on Saturday.
After heavy overnight rain, the conditions on Friday morning were tough, made even more difficult by high blustery winds which made Rochester & Cobham’s Alfie Plant’s first round score of 70, one under par all the more impressive. At lunch, Plant led Mark Collins of Chart Hills by two strokes and Michael Saunders of Dartford by three.
For the afternoon round, the wind blew even harder and as the sun shone, the excellent Bearsted greens began to dry out making life for the players still more challenging. Plant stuck to his task carding a second round 73, 143 for the day to retain the lead going into Saturday but Saunders was promoted to second place with 148 for the two rounds and Collins and Jerome Titlow of Knole Park were equal third on 150. The cut came at a staggering 18 over par for the two rounds illustrating just how difficult the conditions were considering the highest handicap in the field was 5, the majority being scratch or better. 34 players made the cut to play a further two rounds on Saturday.
On Saturday, the winds were still blowing, the sun was still shining and the conditions remained as difficult as they were on Friday afternoon. Plant resumed where he left off and recorded a further 151 for the two rounds, 294, ten over par for the tournament, to win by three strokes from Saunders and five ahead of third placed Collins. A great tournament played on a beautifully prepared Bearsted course but made unusually difficult by the unseasonal weather.
Result: Kent Amateur Champion: Alfie Plant, Rochester & Cobham 294.
Runner Up: Michael Saunders, Dartford 297, The Hetherington Salver.
3rd Mark Collins, Chart Hills 299.
4th Bobby Twiner, The London Club 304.
5th equal. George Dale, Chart Hills and Luke Spooner, Sundridge Park 305.
Alfie Plant as Champion will represent Kent in the English Champion of Champions County Champions Tournament at Woodhall Spa in September.
Astor Cup (36 hole leader): Alfie Plant, Rochester & Cobham
Team Prize: Dartford who will now represent Kent in the English Champion Club Tournament in September at Dudsbury Golf Club.
Item of Interest: It is many years since a father and son competed in the County Championship but this year County Captain Danny Curtis playing off a handicap of +1 competed alongside his eighteen year old son Joe who is 5 Handicap. Both come from Knole Park. Young Joe got the better of Dad in both the gross and net scores which will have made the family Sunday breakfast conversation an interesting one.
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Bob Walden
Kent Golf Union
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