Turvey's men so close to individual clean sweep

BOBBY EGGO all but confirmed his place as Guernsey's best ever golfer by collecting a double gold as Steve Turvey's men came close to a clean sweep of medals yesterday afternoon. A Guernsey 1-2-3 looked on the cards at one stage as Mick Marley claimed silver with his last shot of the day, but Steve Mahy's valiant efforts came to an end when he lost out in a three-way play-off for bronze.

There was plenty of drama during the final day's play as Bobby Eggo's overnight four-shot lead over Isle of Man's Paul Lowey looked in threat when the Guernsey golfer got off to a less than ideal start.

Being two over after four holes Eggo's lead was halved already, but a birdie-eagle run over the fifth and sixth more than corrected a nervy start.

Lowey then found trouble at the eighth, but Eggo had difficulties of his own, collecting double bogeys at the ninth and 11th holes.

Lowey then doubled the 13th to remove his threat for gold, meaning Eggo had to keep a cool head for the remainder of his round.

The experience of Eggo prevailed, with the former Walker Cup man parring the final five holes to ensure a four over par 272 total.

Marley has become accustomed to playing some excellent golf of late and all was going well when the island champion was one under through the turn with the easier back nine to follow.

Suddenly, Marley in provisional silver, tried his best to lose it as he played some nervy-looking golf over the closing holes and he relied on his skilful up-and-down play, which saved the day on more than one occasion.

Despite dropping a couple of shots, Marley was holding on by the skin of his teeth at the last and both he and partner Kevin Moore from the Isle of Man had putts inside five feet for a silver/bronze play-off.

Putting first, Moore missed his crucial four-footer to three stab the last and in dramatic fashion, Marley, looking calm but feeling like the ground was moving, holed his crucial putt for a one-over round of 71 and the silver.

After his level par round, Moore headed into a three-way play-off with Manx colleague Andrew Challener and after a final round 73, Guernsey's Steve Mahy fetched his bag and caddie to join them.

Mahy had played extremely well all week but at the second play-off hole Moore made amends for his earlier three-putt, caning a 20ft birdie putt on the 18th green to claim the final medal position.

With all Steve Turvey's men excelling over the past four days, the Guernsey boys comfortably claimed team gold by a clear seven shots from nearest rivals the Isle of Man, with bronze-placed Jersey a huge 17 shots adrift.

With Aland justifiably firm favourites for women's team gold, Marian Tanguy was thrilled with the efforts of Jan Chamberlain, Gill Burford, Julie Creed and Veronica Bougourd as the Guernsey belles fought off the Isle of Wight and arch rivals Jersey to claim team silver.

In the individual stakes, Aland's 16-year-old Tanya Jansson struck an exceptionally long ball for a final two over par 74 to overtake Veronica Bougourd and claim bronze.

However, Bougourd, with a final day's 82 will not be too downhearted as she would have to improve her final round by a seven shots to force a third place play-off.