Kent Amateur Championship

The club are very pleased to report that at the Kent Amateur Championship, held at Littlestone Golf Club last weekend, Sundridge Park had a really successful weekend once again.

The Club players Tom Beaumont, Luke Spooner and Liam Burns won the Team prize, while Liam Burns went on to secure the overall title.

Liam missed out on completely dominating the tournament by coming second in the qualifying on Friday. In the morning, in benign conditions, he was in control being 7 under after 14. However after a disaster at the 15th, he managed to finish 3 under. In the afternoon the wind got up and his level par was a very good score, but he was unable to overtake Josh Bristow who had shot 4 under in the morning and also shot level in the afternoon.

In the knockout stages he overcame Jake Spearpoint, Tom Jordan, Mark Collins and finally Matt Sheehan to take the title. In the final he was in control being 4 up after 9, but Matt managed to hang on and gradually got the deficit back to only one with 2 to play. However Liam's tee shot at 17 to less that 2 feet looked like that was it. Matt made a valiant attempt with his 20 footer which just lipped out, leaving Liam to hole his, which he duly did.

Victory at the Kent Amateur is just part of Liam's spectacular return to form and follows other recent tournament wins in the region, notably the Romer Bowl held at Littlestone in April, and The Darwin Plate held at West Kent Golf club in May. In the process Liam's handicap has now reduced to +3.

Medal & Peace Plate

It was a day of really good scoring in the Medal & Peace Plate on Saturday played over the West course. Jack Smelt led the way in the Gold Division with a fine nett 65, Clive Tavernier was the runner-up with a nett 67. Nick Wroe took third place on countback from Simon Goldsmith both having shot nett 68's. 

It was Alan Sylvester who arguably produced the performance of the day in the Silver Division shooting a nett 64 to also win the Peace Plate. In the rear view mirror was John Mack the runner-up with a nett 72. Peter Green took third place from Nick Clode both having shot nett 73's. 

Society of Kent Golfing Captains

Playing in the "Society of Kent Golfing Captains", Tony Negal was part of a team that won the "West Kent Salvers" a 4 ball competition. In a competitive field of 64 teams their winning score was an excellent 46pts. Presenting the trophies was Mike Odd the societies newly appointed captain.

The last time the winners of the trophy involved a player/s from our club was in 1972 when the winners were Ron Cox & Leslie Wilson both representing Sundridge Park.



The European Tour heads for Austria this week and the Lyoness Open powered by Greenfinity at the Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg. Sweden's Mikael Lundberg is the defending champion. 

This tournament was first contested as the Austrian Open in 1990 when Bernhard Langertook the title. Since then, Ronan Rafferty, Paul McGinley, Richard Green and Jeev Milkha Singh have all been winners. 

Last season Mikael Lundberg came through a playoff against home favourite Bernd Wiesberger to win. Lundberg fired a superb closing round of 65 to post a clubhouse total of 12-under-par that Wiesberger was unable to better. The event was decided on the first extra hole where the Swede holed a monster putt for birdie. 

"It's always more special when you go to an event as the defending champion," said Lundberg ahead of this week's event. "I wish my game was in better shape but it was similar last year. I didn't play well in Sweden but then I won. Maybe it will click the same way this year." 

Wiesberger will start as a strong favourite this year. He won the tournament back in 2012, comes into the event off the back of a runner's up finish in the Irish Open, and he'll have the support of the home fans. 

Opened for play in 2000, the course at Diamond Country Club took over as host venue for the Austrian Open in 2010. It's an interesting Jeremy Pern design featuring water hazards on nine of the 18 holes. 

There's an increased prize fund for this year's tournament, up to €1,500,000 from €1,000,000. That rise was announced in November when it was also confirmed that the Lyoness Open will be a feature on the European Tour until at least 2019. 

The weather could provide some problems. It's forecast to be very hot, with temperatures around 30 deg C, but there's also the threat of thunderstorms. There could well be some disruption. 

Player watch: 

Rafa Cabrera Bello - The Spaniard has been on solid form of late - tied fourth in the Irish Open and tied 13th last week in Sweden. 

Julien Quesne - His form has been up and down so far in 2015, but he has collected more than €350,000 from the 14 events he's played in. He has four top-10s and nine finishes in the money. 

Benjamin Hebert - A bit of an outsider, but Hebert has shown good signs of form this season with a tie for 10th in Qatar his best result. He picked up three titles on the 2014 Challenge Tour so he's clearly not afraid of winning. Perhaps this week could see his breakthrough on the main circuit. 

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