Paul Nessling showed his liking for the three courses that stage the popular North Devon Links Festival by winning the event for the second time in three years.
The tournament is contested at Royal North Devon Golf Club plus the West and East courses at Saunton and Nessling followed up his victory in 2020 by making another successful sortie into the PGA South West region.
Once again, the PGA South region-based pro finished a shot clear of the field but the conditions he had to overcome on only his second participation in the Festival to claim the £1,600 winner’s cheque could hardly have been more contrasting.
“I’d never played these courses before winning it for the first time,” said Nessling, who represents Cooden Beach Golf Club, East Sussex. “It was great to come back even though it was ridiculously windy for three days.
“That made it really tough, especially at North Devon. Then we had two rounds at Saunton – I love this place, so it’s always good to come back and play some good golf.”
The challenging conditions were reflected in the scoring which saw just three rounds of the 102 completed finish with a sub-par total.
All were posted on Saunton’s West course on day three and inevitably Nessling was responsible for one of them.
His two-under par 69 was matched by the leading player from the host region, Long Ashton Golf Club’s Matthew Turner, but eclipsed by the four-under from Darren Timms from Gravesend Golf Centre.
Nessling, however, had done enough in the first two rounds to ensure his two-over par total of 216 for the tournament resulted in Turner and Timms finishing tied-second.
Reflecting on his gameplan, he said: “The aim was to try and stay out of the pot bunkers and not three putt. You have so many long putts at Saunton but I holed out well.”
Meanwhile, Nessling boosted his earnings by £300 by leading his trio of amateurs – David Burt, Ben Hyder and Mark Holland – to victory in the team competition. They amassed 244 Stableford points to finish three ahead of the quartet captained by Wessex Golf Centre’s Michael Watson.
CLICK HERE for the individual strokeplay scores
CLICK HERE for the team scores
