Fifth senior Island title for dominant Eggo
BOBBY EGGO proved himself to be a class apart as he claimed his third consecutive Senior Men’s Island Championship title and fifth in total.
With two under-par rounds of 67 and 69, the defending champion had finished the 36-hole strokeplay qualifier 10 shots ahead of the field and then took that form into the match-play stages over the weekend at L’Ancresse as he beat Rob Teed 8 & 6 in the semi-finals and then overcame Nigel Vaudin 4 & 3 in Sunday morning’s final.
‘I was four-under in the qualifier, so obviously you have got to feel confident if you can keep that sort of golf going in the matchplay,’ said Eggo.
‘If you can shoot par or better, you have got a great chance, even though it won’t always be good enough.’
Eggo had carded eight birdies during the medal rounds to confirm his fine form coming into the event.
Teed took the handicap honours in the strokeplay stages, finishing an outstanding 11-under-par playing off 10 thanks to nett rounds of 63 and 66, to take first place by four shots from Andrew Boyd.
However, he was always going to be a big underdog against Eggo in the championship semi-finals off scratch and the title holder eased through in 12 holes.
Boyd also reached the semi-finals having finished third in the scratch standings on countback, three behind Vaudin in second.
Their last four clash also went to seeding, with Vaudin coming through 3 & 2.
However, he was up against it from the off in the final as Eggo birdied the first to take the lead.
It quickly grew as par was enough for the champion to win both the second and fourth holes and he moved 4 up through seven when Vaudin bogeyed that par three.
The gap remained four through the turn, but Eggo extended it further with a birdie at the 10th.
The next three holes were all halved in par, leaving Eggo 5 up with five to play before a hooked second on the long 14th resulted in a lost ball and allowed Vaudin to win his first hole of the match, which he celebrated with a good-natured raise of the arms.
The stay of execution lasted just one hole, though, as Eggo closed out the match on the 15th green.
He will now face the new Jersey over-55 champion Paul Walters in the Channel Islands final on Sunday 31 July.
‘It will be the first one in a while,’ said Eggo, with the pandemic having prevented him from the opportunity of converting his 2020 and 2021 titles into CI successes.
