Three of our region’s biggest scratch tournaments produced great golf and three great winners in Hughie Hamilton, Alex Fitzpatrick and James Glenn.
Hamilton, winner of the Seaton Salver at Seaton Carew, turned back the clock to notch his fourth win in the event. Now 48, the 2004 Durham county champion saw off a quality field packed with players half his age using all his 37 years as a member of Seaton to great effect to shoot rounds of 70 and 74 to win by one from City of Newcastle’s Mark Wharton (73-72) with Lindrick’s Richard Hodgkinson third (71-75).
“I started with a three putt from 10ft at the first so I was immediately on the back foot,” said Hamilton. “I then had three birdies in four holes. It was downwind so you had to make your score on those early holes and then knuckle down on the back nine which was playing as tough as I’ve ever known, it was absolutely brutal.”
“I wasn’t even going to play but I thought ‘you know what, it’s my home championship and I want to play’ and I’m chuffed to bits to have won it four times now.”
Meanwhile, Bishop Auckland’s James Glenn set a new course record of 64 en-route to winning the Keith Shivers Bowl. He followed his opening round with a 71 in the afternoon to win by five shots from club colleague Stefan Labuschagne and Wynyard’s Alex Robertson.
In the Cleveland Salver, Alex Fitzpatrick journeyed north to shoot a staggering 23 under-par 265 total to win the title by 13 shots.
Meanwhile, Fitzpatrick set up his win at Cleveland with a 10 under-par second round, posting a four-round total of 265 to win by 13 shots.
