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Christopher Parkinson’s dream run in the golfnews24 Northern Order of Merit continued at Caldy yesterday where the Penwortham golfer won by three shots.
FORMAT: 36-hole stroke play
He started the year without a win in the competition but now has two, backing up his victory at his home course last month in fine style on the Wirral Peninsula. Throw in a second (at West Lancs) and a third (at Delamere Forest) and he is already 52 points clear of the field overall with a quarter of the events played.
A brilliant back-nine effort in the morning set up his victory. Five birdies in eight holes lifted him to an opening 68 and he consolidated well after lunch to stay one clear of Formby Hall’s Graeme and Kristian Towers (Crewe).
Click here to see the full Northern Order of Merit fixture list for 2022
Parkinson avoided a three putt across all 36 holes as his putting came good and he attributed the improved effort on the greens to a recent tweak in his technique.
“I changed my putter grip during the second round at Formby (The Hare took place on Sunday),” said the 33-year-old. “It has made a big difference and my short game was my saviour yesterday.”
In the first round at Caldy he was one over thru 10 but an excellent drive at par five 11th left him with 190 to the flag and he just missed the target with a five iron before getting up and down.
Three birdies in a row, starting at the 13th, sent him to the top of the leaderboard, holing out well from 12-15 feet. He then almost reached the green in two at the par five 18 before chipping to three feet and collecting the four to get to four under.
It left him one ahead of Towers, Booth and Southport & Ainsdale’s George Holland while Tom Partridge (Exeter) was a shot further back.
Parkinson added: “I went out in the afternoon trying to birdie all the par fives and managed three of them so was pretty happy with that. I did think I would have to go under par again to win but fortunately par was enough.
“At times it did feel like one foot forward and two back and I did have some bad luck but it was great to come back and play like that. Last year was my first time at Caldy and we played in 30mph winds and driving rain so it was also very nice to play the morning round in 20 degree heat and flat-calm conditions.”
With the wind getting up after lunch some of the leaders couldn’t maintain the pace and Booth was the only player to break 70 in the second round.
However Parkinson racked up the pars to keep his nose ahead and critically again birdied the last again to close out with a level-par 72.