Surrey’s Kris Kim has promised to deliver something special for a while and did just that in securing the Fairhaven Trophy by six shots.
FORMAT: 72-hole stroke play
The Walton Heath player is still only 15 but displayed the kind of form that saw him win the England U-14s by seven shots two years ago in an event which again attracted some of the best juniors in Europe.
Kim went bogey free in the final round and was pleased with his long game especially at the Lancashire venue. He hit 15 greens in regulation as he finished well clear of Jonathan Ericsson (Sweden), Gavin Tiernan (Ireland) and Germany’s Benedikt Boensch, who started the fourth round just one shot behind the eventual champion.
“My plan in the final round was to birdie all the par fives and par everything else and it went pretty well,” said the 2021 Douglas Johns Trophy champion.
“I got off to a hot start. The par fives were reachable in two while the par fours and par threes were pretty difficult.
“I was really pleased with my iron play and I was good off the tee as well. This is certainly my biggest win so far.”
Both one and three are par fives and Kim birdied both before getting up and down from the fringe at the fourth.
The bonus came in the form of a three at the sixth where he hit a huge drive and pitched to 15 feet before rolling in the birdie.
That put him four ahead of Boensch, who had to wait until the 12th to regsiter his first birdie of the round but a double bogey on 15 killed his hopes of catching the English player.
Meawhile another booming drive from Kim on the short par four 13th set up another birdie although he almost pitched in for eagle.
After parring 14 he discovered his lead was considerable so took a hybrid off the tee at the par five 15th and 18th and enjoyed an alarm-free finish, posting a 68 to finish eight under for the tournament.
In the girls division England player Isla McDonald-O’Brien (Shrewsbury) started the final round one ahead of Ireland’s Caitlin Shippam and Ella Butteriss (Beaconsfield) but a five-under 70 – she birdied three of the first four holes – helped the Shropshire player win by six.