ARNOLD SEEKS SENIORS HAT-TRICK AT JOHN O'GAUNT
Defending champion Doug Arnold will be chasing an unprecedented
third successive victory when the English Men’s Seniors
Championship is played at John O’Gaunt Golf Club in
Bedfordshire on 2-4 June.
The 57 year old from the Copthorne club in Sussex first took
the title on his debut at Heswall in 2002 and successfully
defended it at Frilford Heath a year ago.
No one has managed to win three successive Seniors titles
since the inaugural championship in 1981 although Gordon Edwards
completed three victories between 1988 and 1996, one being
in a tie.
Arnold’s initial success denied Crewe’s Roy Smethurst
three-in-a-row, the 61 year old retired computer systems designer
having won at Moor Park in 2000 and at Sherwood Forest in
2001.
The pair are likely to be at the forefront of the battle
again this time along with fellow senior internationals David
Lane (Goring and Streatley), also twice a winner of the title,
and 1998 champion Jon Marks (Woodbridge).
Andrew Morrison (Appleby) and Anthony Smith (Hill Valley),
members of the England team in last year’s Seniors Home
Internationals, are also competing, as is Bob Turner (Wearside),
capped in 2001.
Arnold gets his defence underway on the Carthagena at 2.10pm
on Wednesday 2 June, while Smethurst and Lane tackle the John
O’Gaunt at 10.10am and 11.10am respectively.
The field also includes two more former winners in Graham
Steel (Moor Park), joint champion at Parkstone in 1994, and
Brian Berney (East Brighton), joint winner at West Lancashire
two years later.
Other notable competitors include former international Harry
Ashby (Consett), who won the English Amateur title in 1972
and ’73, Bernard Yates (Dyke), the newly installed President
of the Sussex Golf Union, and Charles Kemp (Bedford &
County) father of England cap John Kemp.
Two hundred and forty of the best over-55 golfers in the
country will be in action over the two courses, the John O’Gaunt
and the Carthagena, over the first two days after which there
will be a cut, the leading 60 players and ties competing for
the final 18 holes over the John O‘Gaunt course. As
usual, there are four subsidiary competitions based on age
groups.
The leading players from this championship are likely to
be in the forefront of selection for the seven-strong team
to represent England in the annual Seniors Home Internationals
at Aberdovey on 28-30 September.
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