Student Golfers start season with double success

Student golfers, from the High Performance Programme, started the season positively with successes at two national events: The British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) tour event at Little Aston Golf Club and the 36-hole Westlake Trophy at Trevose in Cornwall.

The players at the BUCS tour event were enjoying productive and important practice round on the course when encouraging news from Trevose began to filter through, which breathed a new-found confidence and drive into the squad. The golfers were already inspired by the quality of the ‘UK Top 100 Course’ of Little Aston Golf Club. Alex Sanders and James Blyth played superbly to both lead at the end of day 1. Alex headed-up the female competition with a one-under score and James led the men’s with a level par round of 71.

Whereas day one only consisted of one round, day two involved 36 holes and the added pressure of sun light issues at the end of the day. Alex continued her impressive play completing a wire to wire win, holing the winning putt in the dark to take the BUCS Tour win. Her nearest competitor played the first half of the last round in level par and a slip up by Alex meaning there was only 2 shots in it with 9 holes to play. Alex however, dug-deep and maintained her composure, making birdies of her own to remove any hope of the field catching her. Geography 1st year student Sophie Stone after a poor first round had a fantastic last day with an under par score in the second round. This elevated her into third position, gaining some valuable order of merit points in her first BUCS event.

James played another great second round despite an unfortunate lip out on the last preventing back to back level par scores. He was still placed in third position half-way through the last round, but he got within one shot of the lead before unfortunately slipping back to finish in fifth positon after good finishes from the strong field of players. James has had an outstanding start to his time at Exeter, winning on his 1st team debut the week previous to this event and finishing a highly respectable 5th in this BUCS event.

The High Performance players at Trevose Golf and Country Club produced a great performance, with Chris Williams the stand-out player. Chris and Joe Carmody-Firth both challenged at the top of the board, with Chris firing a six-under par 66 in the morning. Chris then helped bring the Westlake Trophy to Exeter with a composed 71 in the afternoon session.

“We have a strong squad of players again this year, demonstrated by these performances. I’m looking forward to what the season brings and the further challenges ahead.” enthused Steve Buzza, the Exeter Performance Golf Coach.

The University of Exeter has a proud golfing tradition and is currently ranked first in the sport of all UK Higher Education institutions in the BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) rankings, having amassed more BUCS points in golf last season than any UK institution previously. For more information about the University of Exeter Student Golf Club contact the Athletic Union or Craig Townsend (Golf High Performance Manager).

Exeter named UK’s top university for sport
The University of Exeter has been named as the Times and Sunday Times Sports University of the Year 2016, in recognition of excellence in sports performance, education and research.
The award acknowledges Exeter as the best in the country in academia and athletic achievement across a wide range of sports. It takes into account the University’s outstanding support for athletes, very high student satisfaction in sport-related programmes and world-leading research which enhances athletic performance at all levels.
For more information about this story contact Andrew Fry.
Date 16 October 2015
Ends