Nicolle and Gaudion crowned LGM club champions
DEBUTANT Jeremy Nicolle won the La Grande Mare men’s club championship at the first time of asking on Sunday as he got the better of Ollie Chedhomme by a solitary shot in a dramatic finale to the 36-holer.
On a weekend when the women’s course-record holder Chloe Gaudion made her remarkable season all the more memorable by becoming the ladies’ club champion, the top two in the men’s event went head-to-head right down to the wire.
Defending champion Chedhomme led overnight by a shot from Nicolle having shot 66 and 67 respectively on Saturday.
With Ben Hibbins and Dave Jeffery the next best in the scratch stakes having both carded opening 72s, it was always likely to be a two-horse race on Sunday, and so it proved.
Having reached the turn sharing the lead, Nicolle pulled ahead and led by four with four to go, but a couple of dropped shots on 16 and 17 made it a tense finish going up the last.
His heart-rate would have gone up several beats as he leaked his second out to the right, but he recovered to save his par while Chedhomme made a birdie four to end up a solitary stroke behind after 36 holes.
‘I haven’t played in anything like that before where we go out in order – it would be nice to see that more – but, yeah, it was interesting having Ollie breathing down my neck,’ said the new club champion Nicolle, who added that his 2019 Island Championship victory at the same course held him in good stead on the back nine.
‘I got to four [ahead] after the 14, but I knew that with it being his home course and now playing off plus-three, he wasn’t going to give it to me easy.
‘Certainly with a couple of misses on the way it made it tense going up the last, especially with that leaked one, but glad to get it over the line.
‘Obviously, we all know Ollie is class, he is off plus three, I take my hat off to him he played so well today but got a bit unlucky on the greens.
‘I think he’ll be one to watch in the island match in a couple of weeks’ time and hopefully this will give me a bit of a boost going over there, too.’
Dexter Crowson took the nett honours on countback from Dale Wilcock having both finished on a 125 aggregate.
Gaudion was a convincing winner of the women’s club championship thanks to following up her opening 79 with an 80 to finish on 159 gross aggregate.
Her first round included birdies at the second, fourth and 10th and although her second round got off to a slower start, she recovered impressively with eight pars and a birdie at the eighth in her final 14 holes.
