Midland Boys victory caps excellent string of displays from Kirby Muxloe ace
Frazer Jones has been knocking on the door of a significant win in recent weeks and it finally came at his home course on Tuesday in the Midland Boys.
FORMAT: 36-hole stroke play
The 16-year-old has recently finished third in the Henry Cooper Masters, sixth in the England U-18s and sixth at the Midland Youths last week.
But this time around Jones, who has been part of the Leicestershire Boys team who have won the last two England Golf Midland qualifiers, got over the line by two shots from Ryan Gavin (Coventry) while his county colleague William Plant (Cosby) was a shot back in third.
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Jones put in a stellar display tee-to-green at Kirby Muxloe in recording his three under par total. On his way to an opening 68 (-3) he missed just one green in regulation while putting was something of a challenge with the stint metre reading coming in at an Augusta-esque 14.
“I did feel like a winning was coming,” said Jones.
“I played really well all day and the difference between the rounds was I put myself in better spots in the morning. Obviously it helped playing on my home course but I was trying to leave myself below the hole all the time.”
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Having started on the tenth, the one green he missed in the morning (hole 6 – his 15th) lef to his only bogey of the round. However he bounced straigh back, rolling in a 16 footer at the seventh to get back to two under and then took full advatage of the short par four eighth.
At halfway he was tied for the lead with Staffordshire’s Edward Whatmore and they were the only members of the field to break 70.
Unfortunately for the Enville junior he could not sustain his challenge in the afternoon while Jones got off to a poor start, hitting a poor iron shot into the first and he failed to get up and down.
He quickly got back into the groove though, reeling off six straight pars before back-to-back birdies at the end of his front nine got him to four under. A 12-footer at eight was followed by a 16-footer at the ninth.
Jones added: “That gave me a lot of momentum. Even after the bogey at the first I wasn’t too phased as it got me into the round.”
A poor drive at 11 meant chipping out sideways and he couldn’t get up and down and then on 13 what looked like a birdie opportunity quickly turned into a bogey as he eight-footer down the hill for a three went just woud not stop on the lightning fast greens and he missed the one coming back.
However a good up and down at 16 was followed by some more excellent short game work at the par five 17th where he just missed the target in two but a bump and run came to rest three feet away and he made no mistake with the birdie putt.
A secure par at the last meant left him on 139 while Gavin’s closing 70 moved him up into second and Plant had the lowest round in the afternoon (69), which saw him shoot up to third.