University Golf Club tee's off BUCS season

Currently ranked number one in the UK for golf, the club enjoyed a clean sweep in 2012 / 2013 taking the BUCS Premier South and National Team Championship titles and are hopeful of repeating those successes.

This month Exeter Sportsman of the Year and fourth year scholar Laurie Potter, continued to assert his dominance in individual stroke play, using his experience of Saunton’s sand dunes and Woodhall Spa’s historic greens to great effect.

Following a close first day on the ‘Braunton Burrows’, the masters student holed a 30ft putt on the 17^th to leapfrog his competitors, before sealing the deal with a “up and down” from just short of the green on the final hole.

At Woodhall Spa Potter continued his strong form, taking the silver medal position. He commented: “'I'm over the moon with the way the season's started for me. At this level I think a massive part of being successful is believing in yourself and your own abilities and this last month has certainly strengthened that aspect of my game.”

Potter also claimed his first Non-BUCS win of the year earlier in the month. A perfect round of 69 saw the master’s student snatch victory from University of Exeter High Performance Golf Manager Craig Townsend in the Westlake Trophy at Trevose Golf Club on 13 October.

He added: “The Westlake trophy has always been a great tournament for me finishing 1st and 2nd in the previous two years. I went into the competition with a lot of confidence as I knew the course well and how to get the golf ball round the golf course in as few shots as possible.

“It was great to compete against Craig, and brilliant to see the Exeter legend on the podium, showing the youngsters he's still got it when he wants to.”

Exeter’s woman golfers enjoyed an equally successful start with first teamer Katie Bradbury dominating proceedings at Wood Hall Spa.

The Welsh international powered her way to a 10 shot lead after day one, before consolidating her position and finishing eight shots clear overall.

“I was really looking forward to playing Woodhall spa as I knew I was playing good golf so could be right in contention to win.” She said. “During the first round I hit the ball really solidly, not missing a green which allowed me to post a good four under score.

“Although the conditions for the second round were a lot tougher, I knew if I played sensibly I could win the tournament.

"I got off to a pretty poor start but held myself together for the rest of the round. After not performing as well as I'd hoped in Saunton, it was great being able to claim my first BUCs win at Woodhall. I feel really confident about my game at the moment and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season with the club.”

New recruit Georgia Thomas also earned her stripes, with two podium finishes in the opening two matches for the club.

The first year Exercise and Sport Science shot 80, 80 at Saunton to take 2nd place before finishing 3rd with 80, 78 at Woodhall Spa.

“It was great to be in contention and finish in podium positions in my first two BUCS individual events." She said. "It has given me a great confidence boost for my golf and has encouraged me to continue to take all the opportunities given to me by the EUGC and HPP in my stride in order to come back next year and try and improve my finishing positions.

“Both events were great bonding experiences with the other HPP members and I feel that producing some good scores has relaxed me a little in regards to feeling like I deserve to be in the HPP, since my handicap is higher than most of the others'.”

High Performance Golf Manager Craig Townsend is pleased to see the team doing so well in these early stages, but knows there is still room for improvement.

“It has been an excellent start to the season, and the guys should be very happy to getting wins so early on.” He commented.

“The summer break has meant that many of the players have not played much golf for a long time so there is still a long way to go, and we have a lot of work to do to get back to the top of our game, but I am confident that with the work the team are putting in we can get there and fight to retain our status at the top of the league tables.”