A medical emergency disrupted play in the final round of the Peter McEvoy Trophy at Copt Heath – but nothing could derail Sussex star Marco Penge from a record-equalling victory.
Players had to wait for over two hours while emergency services tended to a member who was injured in a fall on the course. But 16-year-old Penge was unfazed by the delay, and when play resumed he completed a round of 66 for a total of 12-under par. He was eight shots clear of Bradley Moore (Kedleston Park), who was runner-up for the second year in a row, and who won this title in 2013.
“When we were waiting I heard someone say the record was 12-under and I made that my goal,” said Penge, an England boy international from Golf at Goodwood in Sussex. “I got to 12-under with three to play, but I three-putted the 16th – I went for the first putt to try to get the record! Then I missed a short birdie putt on 17 but I birdied the last to tie the record.”
Penge started the tournament in fine style, with a six-under 65 which included six consecutive birdies in his first nine holes, from the 13th to the 18th. He returned a steady, level par 71 in the second round, and in the third he was three-over after nine holes – before the birdies returned. “I shot four-under on the back nine to get to one-under, and finished with three birdies on the trot,” he recounted. “I could have been a lot lower in the last round, but it was a good score,” added Penge, who played well off the tee throughout the tournament. “I kept it in play, I only went at the pins when I could and I aimed for the middle of the green when they were tucked away.”
Penge’s win underlines a good start to the season in which he has already won a Faldo Series event, qualified for the match play in the Spanish amateur, and finished 11th in the Duncan Putter in Wales.
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