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Moor Hall trio Daniel Bardsley, Rob Bardsley and John Paul Banbury came storming back to win the English Champion Club at the weekend and have now targeted similar success when they face Europe’s best next month.

The Warwickshire representatives began the second round of the 36-hole event at Lilley Brook Golf Club on Sunday a shot behind the team from Henbury GC, who had hoped to win on home soil after making the finals from the Gloucestershire round of qualifying.

However, Moor Hall proved unstoppable in the final charge for the line with all three players shooting par or better to seal the victory ahead of 30 of their rivals.

In the end, the Moor Hall men ended with a combined three-man team score over 36 holes of 411 (-3). That tally allowed them to win the event by six shots from a Henbury side featuring Nick Day, Michael Day and Calum Mortimore.

Hexham and Yorkshire qualifiers Hallowes ended the event tied on a total of +12 with the Northumberland side edging third spot on countback. A total of 31 clubs took part.

On top of the title as English Champion Club, the Moor Hall team will now get the chance to fly the flag for England at the European Men’s Club Trophy, which will be held next month at Troia Golf Club on Portugal’s Algarve coast.

Speaking after the win, Banbury said: “We’ve all been friends for over 20 years through the juniors and onto the county scene and it’s great to win this as a team. We’ve all got similar games and are generally pretty solid. The idea was to make sure we were still in contention after round one and then to push a bit more in the second round. It helped that we were all playing with the guys from Henbury so that we could work out what they were doing. There was also a point around the turn where we could speak to each other and work out the state of play.”

Moor Hall’s opening day score of level par was highly commendable but they had their work cut out to try and pip Henbury. However, with Banbury firing a three-under par round of 66 featuring five birdies and just two dropped shots the deficit was soon overturned.

Daniel Bardsley’s consistency was also key – two level par rounds of 69 providing a solid base for the team. Rob Bardsley went one shot better to record rounds of 69 and 68.

Now the Warwickshire trio has their eye on more glory in Portugal. “Fingers crossed if we play as we did in this event then I think we have a decent chance in Portugal,” added Banbury. “We all can’t wait to play out there. I’ve checked out the venue online and while there’s a bit of planning and some re-arranging of holidays that need to be done first, we’re looking forward to competing.”

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A new PGA Tour season — the last with the fall swing as we know it — began on Thursday in Napa, California, with a lengthy weather delay and a pretty fascinating first-round leaderboard. The entire field was unable to finish Round 1 on account of some early fog on the West Coast and a handful of golfers will finish up their first 18 holes on Friday morning.

Let’s take a look at a feel-good story at the top of the board after a partially completed Round 1 and a couple of big names who got their new seasons off to a great start.

The leader

1. Justin Lower (-9): Everybody probably remembers his teary press conference after narrowly missing making the top 125 last year at the Wyndham Championship. Lower later retained his PGA Tour card by being bumped up because some of the players ahead of him in the top 125 moved over to LIV Golf, and he took advantage of it on Thursday at the Fortinet Championship.

Lower’s T8 finish last year at the Barbasol Championship is the best of his career by OWGR points earned, but he’s in a great position to better that and put himself in a great spot to get well ahead of the curve of making the top 125 when this season concludes. Lower said after his 63 on Thursday that a year of experience on the Tour makes all the difference in the world.

“I left this course last year kind of in shock, honestly,” Lower said. “I was like, ‘God, if this is how the Tour is, I need to get a lot better very quickly.’ Yeah, I feel a lot more confident than I did at this point last year just being the last card last year and then being where I am this year, I feel a lot more confident with my game and a lot more comfortable, for sure.”

Other contenders

2. Max Homa (-7)

T3. Ben An, J.J. Spaun, S.H. Kim (-6)

T6. Greyson Sigg, Nick Taylor, Rickie Fowler, Sahith Theegala, Emiliano Grillo, Scott Harrington, Matti Schmid, Sung Kang, Brice Garnett, Robby Shelton (-5)

This dawned on me last year at this very tournament, which Homa won, but he has turned himself into one of the most consistent threats to win on the entire PGA Tour. He shot his third consecutive 65 at this event (dating back to last year when he shot 65-65 on the weekend to win) and picked up right where he left off on his best year ever on the PGA Tour last season. With the Presidents Cup coming next week, Homa’s form is a great sign for the U.S. team and perhaps an even better sign for him as he tries to win this tournament for the second straight year (Brendan Steele did the same in 2016 and 2017).

Rickie’s return

Rickie Fowler has had a rough few years, but he had an awesome Thursday with a 5-under 67, which is his second-best round since the Wells Fargo Championship in May. Contention from him this weekend would be incredibly popular and the absolute perfect start for the PGA Tour to a new season.

“Like we’ve talked, just trying to get back to being more consistent,” Fowler said. “I’ve had some good weeks in the past few years, but it shouldn’t just be a few weeks in those years, there needs to be more. That’s kind of the biggest thing is just getting back to playing some consistent golf, consistently being in contention and having chances to win tournaments.”

2022 Fortinet Championship updated odds and picks

• Max Homa: +350
• Justin Lower: 9-1
• Sahith Theegala: 12-1
• J.J. Spaun: 14-1
• Emiliano Grillo: 14-1
• Hideki Matsuyama: 20-1

I think Homa has the best chance to win, but I don’t like his number here. I’d rather have Theegala at 12-1 or even somebody like Adam Svensson — who was fifth in strokes gained tee to green on Thursday — at 55-1.

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Essex’s Charlie Croker birdied four of the final five holes to claim a stunning victory at the English Boys’ County Champion of Champions.

Playing on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa Golf Club, the 15-year-old posted rounds of 71 and 68 for a 36-hole total of 139 (-7) and a one shot victory over Cumbria’s Joey Hornby

The event featured the boys’ champions from 30 counties in England – and was once again a terrific advert for junior golf in this country. Croker, from Thorndon Park Golf Club, looked to have drifted out of contention when he carded a double bogey six at the third hole in his afternoon round. At that stage, he was six shots behind leader Hornby.

Hornby, playing alongside Croker, had signed for a six-under par round in the morning and had made a steady start to his second round. But as Hornby stayed on track with a series of pars, Croker jumped on board a birdie train. He picked up shots at the sixth, eighth and ninth, and then found some extra energy to go on a final charge He knocked in a birdie at the par-five, 14th, a six-footer at 15 was sunk, as was a similar length putt on 17.

As Croker made his way to the 18th tee there was a three-way tie for top spot. Hornby remained on six-under par alongside Croker, while Northumberland’s Mogan Blythe – in the group behind – was on a charge of his own. Four birdies on the stretch of holes from seven through 14 had put the Hexham golfer joint top of the leaderboard. Blythe had other chances too. A birdie putt on the 15th grazed the hole, his 12-footer on the 16th horseshoed out and a 10-footer on the penultimate hole was bang on line but short of pace. With all three players locked together on the same score it came down to who finished the strongest.

Hornby made his 16th par of the afternoon round on the final hole to stay at -6. Croker, found the green in two and easily two-putted for another birdie  That left Blythe needing a four for a play-off, but after finding two bunkers on the closing hole had to settle for a bogey six and a share of third spot alongside Lancashire’s Noah Cambridge.

After collecting his trophy, Croker said: ” I was a bit out of it after making a double on the third, but there was still hope. I was playing nicely and I did think there was still a chance I could go low and thankfully that’s what happened. I was proud of myself that after a bad start, I played really well coming in to win.”

View final leaderboard

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