FORMAT: 36-hole stroke play / 2 rounds of matchplay
It was a bit of a struggle for a while but in the end class told as Eliot Baker’s excellent year continued at Saunton where he collected the Devon Men’s County Championship.
The Tiverton teenager only just made it in into matchplay stages on West course. With the top four making it through, he needed a play-off with Sidmouth’s James Pickard to qualify.
However the next day he promptly beat top seed Peter Howell 6&5 in the semi-final before seeing off Royal North Devon’s Neil James 5&4 to win the competition for the first time on Sunday.
“I played really solidly on Sunday,” said the 19-year-old who this year topped the British Universities & Colleges Sport Order of Merit as part of the Hartpury University golf programme. He won three times in the series at The Belfry, Exeter and Sherwood Forest.
“The wind got up on the Sunday so pars were winning a lot of holes.”
In the final a 45 footer for birdie at the sixth kick-started a run which took him three up thru eight.
Baker then eagled the tenth, holing out from 20 feet to get four up and both players struggled at the 12th where a bogey was enough for the Tiverton player to extend his lead still further.
James did get one back thanks to an excellent par putt on 13 (he sank one from 20 feet) but his opponent closed things out at the very next, birdieing the tough par four from 15 feet.
In the morning there were fewer fireworks. Baker birdied three but pars were generally getting the job done and he was four up thru nine.
He sealed his final place at the 13th, hitting a wedge to six feet and sinking the putt for birdie.
The previous evening the play-off with Pickard lasted four holes. Playing the first and second in a loop, a run of pars was broken at the second were the Sidmouth player missed a ten-foot par effort to stay in it.
The stroke play scores also counted towards the team event, won by Exeter. Lewis Beer, Jack Jeffery and Fred Bishop combined to win by four shots ahead of Saunton and they will now represent Devon in the England Golf Champion Club finals in the autumn.