From last to first for Ford as he birdies 18th to win

The 12-handicap from La Grande Mare holed a 20ft birdie putt on the last green to edge out his club captain Phil Daunt on countback after both returned nett 66s on a warm and sunny day on the links.

After receiving the trophy, Ford described his round as a ‘rollercoaster’ which came to a dramatic climax on the last two holes.

Having been informed by those in the know that he was in with a good chance of victory, he flushed his approach to the 17th through the green, leaving himself in an unplayable lie.

‘I was kind of thinking, game over,’ said Ford.

‘Taking a drop from there, the drop was the worst drop you’ve ever seen so I came up short and made a six.

‘Standing on the top on the 18th I thought “right, a bit of wind into the face, just a nice clean sheet shot”. I took a seven iron and it landed probably 20ft away from the pin, pin-high to the left.’

It was then that one of his playing partners, Tony Ogier, mistakenly told Ford that his putt would be for a nett 65, which added to the drama.

However, Ford revealed that he felt good as he lined it up.

‘I just believed in it, I hit it and it rolled and it rolled and it rolled. It was on the left-side of the cup and it just dropped in at the last minute.

‘The worst thing was I thought I’d shot 65.

‘Oge came over to me and hugged me, but he wasn’t doing my card, it was my other playing partner Gary [Brehaut].

‘I was like, “I’ve done it, I’ve done it” then Gary said “Alex, you’ve shot a 66”. So I was like, “I haven’t done it, I haven’t done it”.’

The drama did not end there.

Having dropped his scorecard into the office, Ford headed straight to the bar where one of the event organisers Colin Bourgaize found him and instructed Ford that he needed to input his score into the locker room computer.

‘So I went down, put it in the computer and on the computer it came up to say I had won. I was absolutely gobsmacked.’

• More in Monday's Guernsey Press.