David Clark

Clark crowned season’s best

Morpeth’s David Clark won the season-long Mizuno Order of Merit on the North East & North West PGA circuit after picking up two major wins and a string of top-five finishes.

“The order of merit is always a good measure of where your game is at, and it’s a great feeling to win it again in a highly competitive region,” said eight-time order of merit winner David. “My season started off slow and I was playing awful. I turned it around at Slaley Hall, and then the run of tournaments coming at the end of the year helped me out as my form picked up and my scores improved.”

This year’s order of merit was comprised of six professional tournaments and five Pro Series events. David secured top spot with 1,515.05 points as Carlisle Driving Range-based Craig Goodfellow finished second (1,240 points), and Whitehaven’s Jonathan Graham finished in third place (1,193.67 points).

As well as winning the Pro Series events at Whitley Bay (tied) and Teesside, David won the NE/NW PGA Championship at Slaley Hall in July – shooting rounds of 66 and 74 over the Priestman and Hunting courses to win by two shots over Mark Ridley.

He then finished second in the Sunderland of Scotland Masters at Westerhope – coming up one shot short of winner Jonathan Graham.

David went one better just two days later in the Tour Championship at Brancepeth Castle, topping the leaderboard with a four under-par round of 66 and finishing two shots clear of his assistant at Morpeth, Kieran Graham.

“I’ve had some good performances at Slaley and Brancepeth over the years, and winning round both was great. At Slaley, I had a great start and then managed to limp over the line, while at Brancepeth I finished like a train. Beating my fellow Morpeth professional Kieran by one at Brancepeth made that win just a bit sweeter,” said David.

A fourth-place finish in the Heineken Dunstanburgh Classic – which was won by Tyneside’s James Wilson with a bogey-free 65 – added to David’s points tally. In the season-ending Matchplay Championship, he reached the semi-finals as Westerhope’s George Cowan lifted the trophy.

At the end of the season, David was also voted the circuit’s Player of the Year by his fellow professionals.

“Being chosen by your peers for the Player of the Year is a great feeling – it adds a nice finish to a good year on the course,” he added.

“I’m in a good place overall and it’s great to still be winning a few events. I’ve got some areas I can work on technically, the same ones I’ve known about since I was 15 years old, and we’ll see how next year shapes up before committing to too much.”