SATURDAY, September 1 was the 40th anniversary of the Tournament of Champions an annual event at Cradoc Golf Club, who with sponsors Molson Coors had invited the club champions from across Wales to an end of season finale to see who would be the Champion of Champions. Past winners include a host of internationals and a couple of European Tour winners in Bradley Dredge and Stephen Dodd and this year’s competitors couldn’t have asked for better conditions to play golf.

It was almost ideal weather. There was light cloud with a few bright spells and a comfortable temperature all day, there was very little wind with the fairways running nicely and the greens were receptive and a good pace.

The morning round is generally a time to position yourself and get a feel for the golf course and that it just what Laurence did, his first round score of 68 was the best of the morning and of the whole day. Lewis was second in the morning with a solid 69, his afternoon round of 74 meant that Adrian claimed second with his better second round score of 72 to follow his morning round of 71, both finishing on 143. Consistency was the key for the next four places with Jacob, Julian and Daniel all putting together rounds of 72 and 73 and having to be seperated by better back 18 and then count back on the last nine holes.

Results: 1st Laurence Vargas - St Pierre - 68+73 = 141; 2nd Adrian Cunningham - Woodlake Park - 71+72 = 143; 3rd Lewis Sanges - Celtic Manor - 69+74 = 143; 4th Jacob Harrington Sara - Ridgeway - 73+72 = 145; 5th Julian Sansom - Llanwern - 73+72 = 145; 6th Daniel Lloyd - Wrexham - 72+73 = 145; 7th Ryan Nedza - Neath - 74+74 = 148; 8th Nick Collier - Woodlake Park - 79+71 = 150

Another beautiful day greeted the 144 men who came to play the last of the Mens Open competitions on Sunday, September 2 and they all marvelled at how good the course was after the dry summer. The fairways were running and the greens holding so it was a no surprise that there were some good scores out there, even with the same set up at the previous day’s Tournament of Champions. 4BBB is a good competition where one player can attack the course and the other can play steady and pick uptake pars to keep the score ticking over and this certainly happened here, with the leaders Jarred & Pat coming in 9 better than par and a clear winner by 2 shots from David & Oli. Third and fourth both had the same scores with the Caerphilly pairing Kevin & Matt having a better back nine than Wenvoe’s Darren & Rob.

We hope you all enjoyed your rounds and look forward to seeing you all next year.

1st - Wenvoe Castle - 45 points, Jarred Davies & Pat Ragan; 2nd - Cradoc & Monmouthshire - 43 points, David & Oli James; 3rd - Caerphilly - 42 points, Kevin Markell & Matt Nelms; 4th - Wenvoe Castle - 42 points, Darren Jeffries & Rob Picton; 5th - Pontypool - 41 points, David Price & Rob Baker; 6th - Cradoc - 41 points, Derek Osborne & Tony Bowlkett.