10 Jul 2013 at 13:40 | Published by: Freebird | Views: 10814 | News search

Michael Smith on his way to victory in the final match of the event  (Photo by Mick Gisbourne)

The BMGA tour made a welcome return to Dorset for the first time since 2009 as the Boscombe Chine Minigolf Course hosted the British Matchplay Championship on Sunday 7th July.

Michael Smith retained his British Matchplay Championship title, beating John Moore in the final match of the day 2&1 to secure his second Matchplay championship win.

Speaking after the event Michael said ""I'm delighted to have won the 2013 British Matchplay Championship. It's a very satisfying feeling to retain my title and to join my club captain, Sean Homer, in becoming a two time champion of this prestigious event. A huge thanks to everybody for playing and organising the tournament. Bearing in mind the immense difficulty of the course and the very hot temperatures we had to play in, the standard of minigolf was excellent, so congratulations to everyone involved".

In the 3rd place play off match, Emily Gottfried beat Mark Wood 3&2 to secure the bronze medal place.

BMGA Chairman and previous two time Matchplay Champion, Sean Homer, said "The Matchplay event is always a highlight in the calendar and once again we saw some excellent results from a number of players. Michael once again took the title and the rightfull plaudits as the Champion, Emily and Mark took some major scalps on their way to personal best Matchplay finishes and after a tough group stage, Alex Pragnell rallied in the knock out stages to finish well, taking 10th place overall. The format can be cruel at times, highlighted perhaps in it's biggest extreme case with Gareth's performance. Having tied on points joint first in his group, he ended up missing out on the top two places having a stroke difference 1 lower than the group runner up and ultimately ended up with the wooden spoon.Clearly one stroke can make ALL the difference in Matchplay!! As well as thanking all the players who took part - and all our players so far this season now taking a well earned summer break - I would also like to thank Tony Unsworth and all the team at Boscombe Chine for their hospitality over the weekend in what was a great way to sign off the tour until September."

The BMGA tour now takes a break for the summer, returning with the second Major of the year, the British Open at Strokes Adventure Golf course in Margate over the weekend of 21 / 22 September and the traditional warm up event, the Players Championship on Friday 20 September.

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