MICK MARLEY defied the form book to win his fifth Royal Guernsey championship on Sunday. The island regular followed up a level-par morning round of 70 with a 72 to claim the title on countback from Bobby Eggo.
The win, though, came as something of a surprise for Marley (pictured). ‘I had my worst score in two years on Thursday – an 80 – so I had no expectations at all,’ he said.
A solid start to his first round was not a sign of things to come. Marley was two under after eight without a blemish on his card to that point before three bogeys in four holes briefly set him back.
‘I was one over on the 13th tee, but birdied that hole and then eagled 14 when I holed a putt from off the green,’ he said.
‘After that I dropped two shots on the way in so it was a bit of an up-and-down run after a decent start.’
At that point Marley was one shot behind the halfway leader, Eggo, the only man to shoot a sub-par opening round in the scratch competition.
The afternoon start was far from promising for the eventual winner, though, as Marley found the out-of-bounds on the second and also bogeyed the sixth, a shot he was to claw back at the eighth.
There was more drama to come on the longest hole as well.
‘I hit the pin at 14 for eagle, but then missed the 3ft putt I was left with for birdie,’ Marley said.
After another dropped shot at 16, he felt his chance of claiming the title had slipped away, despite finishing three-three.
‘I two-putted the last for par but thought it was not enough,’ Marley said.
‘At halfway I felt I would probably need to shoot under par to win it and when I was two over coming down the last, I didn’t expect to be in with a chance.
‘It was probably just as well that I did not know what Bobby had scored [a 73] at that point because it would have added a bit of pressure on the 18th green.’
Nigel Vaudin also shot a second-round 73 to add to his opening 71 in claiming third prize with John Le Lievre and Marley’s playing partner Dave Rowlinson completing the top five.
Meanwhile, the undoubted potential of 12-year-old Luke Blondel came to the fore in the Garenne Trophy for the handicap honours.
The Guernsey junior shot excellent sub-par net rounds of 69 and 65 to win by five shots from Nick Fazakerley.
Article posted on 15th July, 2008 - 2.29pm
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