It was quite the Apeiron Northern Order of Merit debut for Scotland captain Matt Clark in the Silloth Scratch.
FORMAT: 36-hole stroke play
The Aberdeen player’s ten-hour round trip proved well worth it as he won by two shots from Bolton’s Daniel Belch.
Having played Open qualifiers at the Cumbrian venue in the early noughties, the 41-year-old decided the long trip from the North East of Scotland to Silloth was overdue and he was delighted with how he played as well as the state of the course and the event organisation.
He said: “Everyone at Silloth was so friendly. The pros, the volunteers, everyone in fact couldn’t have been nicer. And the course was in great condition. The greens were superb for the time of year – way ahead of anything we could get up here.
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“And I think I might have got lucky with the unusual wind direction. We played it with the wind helping on the front nine and into on the back nine. I was told it is normally the other way around so my lack of course knowledge might have been an advantage.”
Clark, who broke the course record at Narin in leading qualifying for Amateur Championship two years ago, opened with a two-under 70 to leave himself four back of Workington’s Jack Hunter, who had a dream start.
The Cumbrian player took full advantage of the favourable breeze going out to get to five under and he also birdied two of the three par fives coming home on his way to a 66.
After lunch Clark made a move around the turn but bogeys on 14 and 16 meant he was one under for his round and, at the time, he thought the mistakes had killed his hopes of winning.
“I thought I had to shoot five or six under to be competitive, based on what happened in the morning. It definitely wasn’t any harder in the afternoon and, if anything, I thought it had got slightly easier.”
Birdies at nine, 10 and 13 had got him to five under overall but then, at the par five 14th, rustiness played its part.
Clark added: “I didn’t play on a golf course between September 29th and March 23rd and my only rounds since then have come during a six-day holiday to Pebble Beach and Las Vegas plus two rounds at The Battle Trophy last weekend.
“At 14 I was 40 yards away in two and then got stuck between two shots.”
The Meldrum House player, who has been working on his fitness, put his fourth to four feet and missed the putt before dropping another at the long par three 16th where, despite a “decent” chip and putt, he failed to get up and down.
However it all turned around for the banking executive at 17 where he perfectly executed a long-game version of the classic links bump-and-run.
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“I had 240 in and I knew a 3 iron wouldn’t work because I put a lot of spin on my long irons.
“So I just tried to play a dead arm 3-wood and it landed about 190 before taking a big leap forward and rolling out to three feet.”
Clark sunk the putt and then held a ten-footer for par at the last having pulled his approach wide of the target.
His closing 69 proved more than enough as Hunter slumped to a 78, which put him in fourth, while Bolton’s Daniel Belch came through for second. He had 15 pars in his second-round 71 having opened with a far more eventful 70.