Heart-stopping Vaudin digs deep to KO Eggo

THERE will be one first-time finalist in Sunday's domestic final of the CI men's championship. But whoever of Steve Mahy or Jack Mitchell forces his way through to the 36 holes showdown, they will start as the underdog.

Nigel Vaudin, the title-holder, and fellow multi-champion Mick Marley, lie in wait.

In superb conditions on day four of the championship Vaudin overcame his own late wobble to beat Bobby Eggo on the last green.

But the other three quarter-finals were all over before the 16th as Marley put out David Nicolle 4 and 3, Mahy defeated Jamie Blondel 5 and 4 and Mitchell ended the hopes of Jason Savident.

But the heavyweight clash was the one out front and Vaudin, who reckoned never to have previously defeated Eggo in the island championship, held the edge over the most successful man in the field, as early as the second.

At the end a mightily relieved Vaudin wore a typical rosy smile, having seen his two-and-a-half foot par putt crawl up to the left side of the hole, momentarily seem to stop and then drop.

Had it stayed above ground, Eggo would have had a very short putt to win a third straight hole and take the match back down the first.

'I thought I'd missed it,' admitted Vaudin.

'I thought it had stayed on the edge again.'

The winner has played in many a final, but spoke as if he was not supposed to win.

'I think I had only played him in a final before and never won. So it was a bit like my final.'

The basis of Vaudin's victory was an excellent front nine which he covered in 34 shots to be two up at the turn. Eggo got it back to one early on in the back nine, but Vaudin rolled in a birdie at the short 12th and it stayed that way until the 15th where Eggo three-putted and found himself dormy and staring at the hatch out of the tournament.

A birdie at the 16th took them up the 17th and Vaudin lost that one to a par after finding trouble off the tee. At the last Eggo hit a nine iron dead on line but, crucially, to the front fringe, 30ft short of the pin.

Vaudin responded with an iron to a similar distance but left of the flag.

Marley described his win over Nicolle as 'a bit of a mixture.'

They were all-square after seven, but Marley took control with birdies at the eighth and 11th and won nine and 12 with pars.

A self-critical Marley said: 'It's not quite there . . . especially the driving and the pitching.'

Do we believe him?