North victorious in Bushnell Matchplay Pairs

After COVID played havoc with our 2020 tournament, this year’s tournament was uninterrupted and we were rewarded with a Bushnell Matchplay Pairs Final of the highest quality.

Live scoring meant the Linksnet membership could keep up to date with battle, as did our roving reporter Bob Scott!

Representing the North were the duo of Steve O’Keeffe and Duncan Whitehead coming all the way from Blackpool. They were up against Southern champions Danny Kendall and Jon Bromley, two very strong golfers one of whom plays off +2.

Steve and Duncan took an early lead after a superb birdie (net eagle) by Duncan on the first hole and it stayed that way for the next four holes as nothing could separate the two pairs. A well held birdie putt by Steve on hole six sent the Northern pair 2 up before Duncan hit one of the tee shots of the day to within a couple feet for a birdie on 9th to take Steve and Duncan 3 up at the turn.

There was not much Duncan and Jon were doing wrong, but Steve was playing really consistent golf and Duncan’s short game was in fine form.

The back 9 proved even more exciting as Duncan’s birdie four on 11th hole sent the North 4 up and it looked like curtains for Danny and Jon. However, showing true fighting spirit they immediately responded on holes 12 and 13 to bring it back to only two down with five to play.

Duncan and Steve replied again taking the 14th to go back to 3 up before hole 15 was halved. It was now dormie three to the South and on the 16th green it felt like the match could go all the way. However, Duncan made another fantastic ‘up and down’ from the greenside bunker and when Danny’s par putt slid past, Duncan and Steve were crowned 3&2 winners.

It was a fantastic final – all four golfers played their part and some of Jon’s ball striking was a joy to watch. Danny helped bring them back into the game on the back 9 and it could have gone to the wire but Steve was Mr Dependable and dovetailed well with Duncan’s brilliance around the greens.

Thank you to all the players who took part this year – great commitment to travel to matches under tough circumstances with COVID still playing its part. Thank you also of course to Bushnell Golf our sponsors. We are sure the winners will enjoy their Edge GPS watches.

We will be back in Season 3 with some exciting news for our Matchplay competition. Until then look out for updates on our website and social media as well as competitions throughout the winter.