Result - Club Championship and Millennium Qualifier Two. Saturday June 13th. King’s.
King’s Report
The second and decisive qualifier for the Club Championship and Millennium Trophy was played over the King’s on Saturday, and the old place produced exactly the sort of examination everyone expected.
It was chilly, there was a stiff breeze all day, and the pin positions were awkward enough to make even sensible approach play feel faintly insulting. The King’s, as ever, asked proper questions. A few men answered them well, a few negotiated a truce, and a few others will be staring at their cards wondering how a round that began with such promise ended somewhere between regret and archaeology.
The day’s outstanding performance came from Jon Cooper, who swept up both the gross and net honours with a magnificent 72 gross, 67 net. That is a fine score on the King’s in any conditions, let alone with wind tugging at club selection and pins set in places that seemed chosen after a difficult committee meeting. The highlight of Jon’s round was a brilliant eagle on the 3rd, holed from the left-hand rough—the sort of moment that turns a good round into a memorable one and leaves everyone else replaying their own far less glamorous efforts on the same hole. Congratulations to Jon on a superb day’s work.
Behind him, Michael Page and Mark Higham both returned excellent 81s, strong rounds on a demanding afternoon and exactly the sort of scores that keep a man moving with purpose into the knockout conversation. Alastair Cantlay’s 82 was another high-class effort, while Neil Lock matched that number to keep himself firmly in the thick of matters. Colin Campbell was next on 83, and David McColgan’s 85 proved good enough to preserve his aggregate position from the previous week.
There were, naturally, a few other notable efforts. Alan Penman’s 86 may not have had the glamour of Cooper’s eagle-fuelled charge, but it was the sort of steady, valuable score that often proves every bit as important when the aggregate reckoning is done. Ken Marshall, having made sure earlier in the week that nobody in the county was unaware of his five birdies on the King’s, came home with an 87. Respectable enough, certainly, though perhaps not quite the fireworks the pre-round publicity campaign had suggested.
The King’s also took its toll. There were cards not returned, there were DNFs, and there were more than enough bruised ambitions to fill the Dormy. Which is precisely what the King’s does when qualification is on the line.
What Saturday did make clear is that while Jon Cooper took the day’s individual spoils, the bigger business was the 36-hole aggregate over Queen’s and King’s. And that has now settled the line-ups for next weekend’s knockout stages.
Club Championship qualifiers
Using the combined gross totals from Round 1 and Round 2, the following players qualify for the Club Championship knockout stage:
Mark Higham – 153
Neil Lock – 158
David McColgan – 160
Michael Page – 160
Colin Campbell – 162
Tony Moran – 164
Alan Penman – 165
Ken Marshall – 165
Club Championship Reserves:
R1: Michael Cantlay (176)
R2: Rob Simpson (177)
R3: Paul Lewis (178)
R4: Crawford Gray (179)
Millennium Trophy qualifiers
Using the combined net totals from Round 1 and Round 2, and excluding those already in the Club Championship list, the following players qualify for the Millennium Trophy knockout stage:
Mike Collier – 144
Michael Cantlay – 146
David McLeod – 149
Crawford Gray – 150
Paul Lewis – 150
Paul Wadsworth – 150
Allister Wallace – 153
Kevin Beattie – 154
Millennium Trophy Reserves:
R1: Paul Kelly (154)
R2: Frank Johnson (156)
R3: Jonathan Dickson (158)
R4: Rob Simpson (159)
So, after two rounds and two very different tests, the fields are set. The Queen’s sorted them out, the King’s finished the job, and next weekend the knockout golf begins in earnest.
Congratulations once again to Jon Cooper on a splendid double-winning performance on the day—and to all those who have played their way into the last eight of either competition.
