Joy of six for Ben W

The 2018 Bournemouth Tour was won by Ben W. It's his sixth title.

There were two changes before the start. Bruce's handicap was revised to 17 while, sadly, Kevin was ruled out following a late knee injury meaning he missed his first Tour.

Ben W blazed into a three point lead (equalling the Tour record) on day one with Simon the only other player registering a score in the 30s. Saturday's play turned a procession into a competition though.

Bruce (38 - his best Tour round)), Simon (33), James (37) and Ben W (27) were all covered by four points after the second round. It would come down to a last day shoot-out.

In the end it was Ben W that outstayed the field. His score of 32 was too much for the other contenders who perhaps lacked the match practice and physical requirements to cope with three rounds in three days.

Final scores

Ben W - 35, 27, 32 = 94
Simon - 32, 33, 26 = 91
James - 24, 37, 26 = 87
Matthew - 26, 29, 32 = 87
Bruce - 25, 38, 20 = 83
Ben F - 26, 27, 29 = 82
Brian - 20, 21, 30 = 71
Stuart - 22, 22, 24 - 68

Bens

2018 Handicaps announced

You always know the Tour is getting closer when the handicaps are released.

Here's how they are for 2018:

8 - Ben W
9 - Kevin
11 - Matthew
15 - Ben F
15 - Bruce
16 - Brian
18 - Simon
35 - James
36 - Stuart

Last year's champ Ben F is cut by the semi-traditional 10% (rounded up) which equals two strokes. He's never played off less than 16 and never won off less than 17.

Simon and Brian are both up one on last year's starting mark while Bruce's first Tour for four years sees him on his lowest mark in Tour history.

Hamptworth - "The home of enjoyable golf"

Preview:

The 2018 tour kicks off (should that be tees off?) at Hamptworth.

The course guide starts here if you want a hole-by-hole version or, if you think that your own printer ink is cheaper than buying a course guide you can print one off.

It looks a bit of a test to say the least and there's a 666 yard par 6! (The 16th) They call it The Beast.

The trophy might not be won on day one - but it could be lost!

What happened:

Judging from the scores this looks like it was the tough test that was predicted with only Ben and Simon breaking 30 points.

Best scores:

35 points - Ben W (off 8)
32 points - Simon (off 18)
26 points - Matthew (off 11)
26 points - Ben F (off 15)