Lancashire’s Ellis Willott had one of those days all golfers dream about as he picked up his first Apeiron Northern Order of Merit title in extraordinary circumstances at Hillside last night.
FORMAT: 36-hole stroke play
The Southport and Ainsdale player, whose previous best effort in the competition was ninth in the Henriques Trophy at Hesketh in May, rode his luck and conjured up some dazzling short games skills to win on countback from West Lancashire’s Adam Ryan.
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The duo also finished in the top two places in the 72-hole, WAGR-ranked North West Links Trophy, which combines the Birkdale Goblet (played Sunday) and Hillside Pines. Ryan, who is rarelly seen in Northern Order of Merit events, at least had the consolation of picking up that trophy. A day earlier at Birkdale he had opened with a 68 to take a joint lead but then endured a terrible finish, dropping out of contention thanks to second-round 81.
However there was little more Ryan could have done in difficult conditions, especially with Willott holing a 45-foot bomb at his last (the ninth) for an unlikely closing birdie.
It typified the champion’s day as his wedges and putter continually got him out of trouble.
And the recently-graduated UcLan student paid tribute to his caddy and ‘part-time swing coach’ Jack Williams, who studied alongside him in Preston. The Wrexham GC player’s “quality green reading” proved a key component of the victory.
“A week ago I sent a video to Jack because I was hitting it sideways off the tee,” said the 21-year-old.
“He told me he was not sure how I was making contact with the ball with a swing like that. I worked really hard last week and by the weekend had it sorted out.
“But I must give credit to Jack, who caddied for me at Birkdale and Hillside. I holed a lot of 15-footers for par and kept getting up and down and he was crucial in that respect.”
Willott, who reached the Brabazon Trophy after qualifying at Delamere Forest, opened with a 74 to trail Ryan by four at halfway while Basingstoke’s Charlie Forster was one back of the halfway leader. Heavy rain in the morning tested the whole field to their limits.
In the second round Willott started on the tenth, having completed his first round by holing out from 20 feet for a par.
It got tricky pretty quickly for the S&A man as he found water on the 11th (his 2nd), leading to a bogey six but got back to level par for the round at the next after wedging one into to ten feet.
At 15 he three putted to drop back again before a change in wind direction made the 18th a different animal. In the morning he had hit in with a 4 iron and in the afternoon was able to find the short stuff with a wedge. This time he left himself 15 feet for a birdie, making no mistake to turn in 36.
His back nine (1-9) proved equally as eventful as he started by getting up and down, sinking his 10-footer for par.
After a drive and three wood at the par five second, he chipped to eight feet before holing that too.
However his short stick let him down at the third (12th) where he three-putted from the front right of the green.
The long par three fourth was causing the field all manner of problems but Willott picked a good moment to produce his “best strike of the day” to the centre of the green and a par saw him gain on the field.
It got even better at the next where he just missed the par five in two before hitting a “nice chip” to six feet to set up his fourth birdie of the round.
And the fifth would follow in some style. After an excellent escape par at the seventh (16th), and getting lucky in a fairway bunker at the eighth (17th), Willott thought he had struck a poor one into 18, the ball just clearing trouble before coming to rest a long way away from the hole.
But with caddie Jack in tow, he drained the long one to close out with a 71. With Ryan posting a second-round 75, it proved enough to nick the biggest win of his life. The event, along with the Goblet 24 hours earlier, attracted players from all over the country, highlighted by the fact half of the top 12 came from clubs outside of Lancashire and Cheshire.