The 2005 Tour was based in Bournemouth and was the fourth and last under the 'best three rounds from four' format.
That format, a bit of practice beforehand and the fact that he was getting between 17 and 28 shots off his opponents combined to deliver a surprise win for Paul.
The Tour pitched up for a Friday round at Crane Valley. Once again I can't remember the first thing about this course but only Kevin (34) and Simon (32) broke the 30-point barrier so you have to think it was on the tough side. Paul (25) was last after day one and showed no sign of what was about to come.
Brian joined us for the Saturday double-header at Canford Magna. The morning course was the Parkland (I think it was a fairly early start) and had a starter who took our photo (any copy that I can upload?) and we teed off in drizzly rain that soon got steadier. As the rain eased so Paul started to get his act together and, staying out of trouble and making the most of two shots on every hole, came in with 42 points making him the lunchtime leader, two ahead of Ben.
A quick lunch and the second 18 was on the Riverside course in slightly improved weather. Title holder Mark (cut to 10 after last year's win) had struggled over the first two rounds and with only 26 points on this course his chances of a successful defence were all but over. Some close scoring meant we were going to be in for an exciting last day. Simon (35) and Kevin (33) were back in business while Paul and Ben (both 30) made sure they were in the shake-up.
The title would be decided by the round at Dudsbury and then the discarded points. Something we used to do back then (I'm not sure when we stopped) was decide the groups for the last day by order in the competition. That meant Ben and Mark went out first. Mark produced his joint best round of the weekend while Ben faltered and ended discarding his Sunday round.
That left Paul, Kevin and Simon to fight it out and it couldn't have been tighter at the end. Paul, blissfully unaware of the overall scores, found a couple of clutch putts on 17 and 18 and when the scores were totted up had scrambled home by a point.
Final scores
Paul - 25*, 42, 30, 28 = 100
Kevin - 34, 32, 33, 30* = 99
Simon - 32, 32, 25, 29* = 99
Ben W - 27, 38, 30, 25* = 95
Mark - 28, 29, 26*, 29 = 86
Brian - DNP, 31, 24, DNP = 55
* discarded round
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