Moran wins English U14 title after playing five ways in West Sussex – Golf News

Ireland's John Moran defied decidedly humid conditions at West Sussex Golf Club to claim victory in the English U14 Championship's Reid Trophy after an impressive five-way play.

Moran, Louis Le Sager, Ollie McEvoy, Casper van Rensburg and Fraser Walters all chipped in at +4 overall, as rain fell on a miserable final day, meaning five players would go to a sudden-death playoff.

From the par-5 1st hole, it was McEvoy's approach that looked to be in good territory, but the Irishman three-putted and the others managed to birdie, leaving just four players fighting for the title.

DRAMA IN WEST SUSSEX

The quartet then split the fourth hole, with Van Rensburg and Walters having excellent birdie putts. However, it was Van Rensburg (Rolls of Monmouth) and Walters (Craigielaw) who went 4th on the 18th, when Van Rensburg hit a bunker with his tee shot and Walters was unable to get up for par. .

The Welsh golfer came agonizingly close to a perfect recovery but left Moran and Le Sager to battle again on the 1st hole, which was the fourth play-off hole.

Le Sager was close to his par before putting up, and Moran missed right on his approach and left his chip shy.

The Frenchman got close to 10 feet and looked for a low birdie putt and the win, but he stepped up to Moran for a 25-foot birdie putt, and Le Sager saw his effort go down to end the match. . an interesting contest.

HEAVEN'S PROBLEM

Moran said: “It was intense, but I was focused on my golf. I felt like I was giving myself good chances all day and had to wait for the putts to drop and luckily they finally did. Anything can happen in the weather.

I've played enough golf to know that anything can really happen, and I know Louis is a good player, so I knew I had to go ahead and see what happened. All I could focus on was my game and luckily it came through.

“It's nice to be crowned. It's the first competition I've won so it's a pleasure for this to be the first. It's great to be in the history books with all the greats who have won the Reid Trophy and it's my last under 14 event so to come out on top is great.

West Sussex was blessed with sunshine on Tuesday for the first round of the tournament, however the weather worsened throughout the week, with Le Sager taking the lead in Thursday's final round.

Despite the early birdies, a triple-bogey on the par-3 6th opened the door for the rest of the field, and Walters' 1-under back-9 was enough to see him take a share of the clubhouse lead, alongside McEvoy. and Moran both shot +1 final rounds on the final day.

COMPLETE

In the day's penalty shootout, Van Rensburg played some incredible golf but hit the sand in his tee shot on the 18th and missed a short putt, finishing with a double-bogey where a bogey would have won the contest outright.

After that, in the last group, Le Sager fought with birdies on 14 and 16 and despite hitting the sand with his tee shot on 18 he pulled one left in a difficult area, he sadly came close to winning the competition with par, but his success. The bogey forced a five-player play-off, with one player in the final five pars heading to extra holes.

The championship round came from Spain's Jorge de la Riva on the final day as his four-under 64 on the par-68 course included six birdies to move him up the leaderboard in 7th place, finishing just two shots off the leaders.

Check out the final leaderboard here.