An opponent of the quality of Sam Quail does not need a helping hand – as he demonstrated by coolly draining back-to-back 25ft birdie putts on the third and fourth holes of their showdown at L’Ancresse on Saturday afternoon – but the Guernsey champion also obliged his Jersey counterpart over the front nine as he gifted him a couple of holes to find himself in an unenviable position of being 4 down after eight.
‘To be honest with you, after the eighth hole, I just thought I was throwing it away. I really wasn’t in control of my game around the greens, but I just managed to dig in,’ said Nicolle.
He did much more than just dig in, though. It was as if reaching the turn flicked a switch in his psyche and he suddenly engaged attack mode. The results were akin to achieving a whole host of A* exam grades.
Sparked by hitting a drive to pin high just off the green at the par-four 10th, Nicolle made five birdies on the back nine on Saturday evening, along with making one of the best par saves he is ever likely to make on 11, as he chipped away at Quail’s lead and flipped the momentum of the match on its head.
The red numbers came at 10, 12, 13, 15 and 16, and although Quail matched the last two of those birdies, an unusual error at the 18th from the Jerseyman saw Nicolle close to within one overnight.
‘I love the back nine. I just feel like I can go after it a bit more and I think I made a lot of good decisions, not very many mental errors, whereas earlier on in the round I made a few, particularly on the greens with three three-putts in the first eight holes,’ Nicolle said.
‘But I just sort of zeroed in, went into my own little world and managed to turn it into a bit of a strength come the end of the day. I couldn’t have been happier overnight.
‘He stuck a few birdies in on the back nine himself, but I was sat at home [on Saturday night] 1 down, kind of calm and just thinking, “OK, I can go chasing a bit” and I like to be a bit of a chaser. I like to be the aggressor in matches.’
The L’Ancresse member then picked up from where he left off when play resumed on Sunday morning.
He could have bemoaned his bad luck when his fine opening tee shot ended up in a divot in the middle of the fairway, but he simply got on with the job in hand and hit a cracking approach to set up an opening birdie that drew him level.
He was a whisker away from making another on the second, but he was already on a roll and a two at the third – the 21st hole of the match – gave him the lead for the first time.
From then on, there was no looking back as Nicolle kept his nose in front.
He made a putt from just off the green for a three at the fourth to double his advantage and when both players birdied the long sixth, it meant the Sarnian had made nine birdies in a stretch of 15 holes.
The standard briefly dropped as the players exchanged a couple of holes around the turn when pars were good enough, but Nicolle found another gear once more when it really mattered.
A birdie at 13 restored his 2 up advantage and he holed a clutch putt for a half in birdies on the long 14th.
Both hit quality approaches into 15, but only Quail converted to reduce the deficit and he laid down the gauntlet with a fine tee shot to just short of the 16th green.
Nicolle’s reply was to outdo his opponent, finding the middle of the green with a brilliant drive to give himself a great look at eagle.
Somehow that putt stayed out, but his birdie three doubled his advantage once more and he held his nerve on the next green to hole a 4ft par putt that clinched a 2 & 1 victory.
‘Sam’s rhythm and tempo is so, so good, and to be back-to-back Island champion of Guernsey or Jersey is extremely difficult. Coming into this as defending champion, he obviously wanted to keep that title, too, so he definitely laid it on me coming in,’ said the victor.
‘I think we birdied four of the last five between us, and when that birdie putt went in on 15 and then he hit a lovely drive just short of the green on 16, I felt obliged to go up and luckily hit a really, really good one.
‘I still don’t know how that eagle putt missed, but the result went my way so I won’t lose sleep over it.’
