Brickhampton Court’s Ross Langdon was the first G&S PGA winner of 2019 as he won the opening event of the calendar year at Minchinhampton Old Course with a 5 under par round of 66. He won by two from Total Triumph Order of Merit Leader Giuseppe Licata (Chipping Sodbury) who finished with a 68, writes Andrew March.

A cold but dry, sunny and relatively calm day greeted the players on the course which navigates around the common, high above Nailsworth. The greens were still showing signs in places of the lengthy drought suffered in the summer and proved tricky for the players. This was probably the main reason that the scores were not as low as they have been in previous years at the same course. Langdon, however, had no trouble on his way to his second victory of the season.

Six birdies adorned the winners card with 2 coming on the front nine and four more on the way home. He picked up his shots at the 2nd and 4th on the opening stretch whilst the 10th, 12th, 13th and 17th were completed in less than par figures for Langdon on the way home. Licata carded one more birdie than the winner but an untidy finish cost him a chance of sharing the top spot. Despite not picking up any strokes on the opening pair of par five’s he still sunk 6 birdies in the next 10 holes from the 3rd. Shots were gained at the 3rd, 4th, 9th, 11th, 12th and 13th with the final birdie coming at the 17th. Unfortunately that was sandwiched by a double bogey at the short 16th and a bogey at the home hole meaning he had to sign for a 68. The result did see him further extend his Total Triumph Order of Merit lead over George Ryall who is now being chased closely by Ed Goodwin. The Cirencester man took third spot on the day at Minchinhampton with a one under par score of 70 which contained 3 birdies and 2 bogies.

Andrew March (Brean) ended the day in 4th on level par after carding 4 birdies and 4 bogies, 3 of which unfortunately came in the final 4 holes preventing him from challenging further up the leaderboard. The final prize money for fifth was shared on 72 by 5 players, Kristian Crane (Cotswold Edge), Mark Plummer (Cirencester), Alex Munro (Bristol Golf Centre), James Hannam (Bath) and Robin Goodey (Chipping Sodbury).