James Walker (Oaks Golf Club) and Nicholas Poppleton (Peter Cowen Golf Academy) scored a spectacular 11-under-par 61 on the final day to take the 2023 Golfbreaks PGA Fourball Championship.
The pair shot rounds of 64, 61 and 61 over the three-day event to finish on 30-under-par and win by two shots over day two leaders, James Ruth (James Ruth Golf Coaching) and Paul Hendriksen (Ivybridge Golf Club) who finished two shots back on 28-under-par.
After finishing tied-first in their qualifying event, it’s back-to-back wins for Walker and Poppleton after they toppled the Devon duo.
Poppleton said: “We knew there was a chance of them catching us - we’d missed a short putt on 17 and we knew they were within one shot after they birdied 17, so if we could muster up a birdie on the last then it would make it a lot harder for them, they’d have had to make eagle there, so it was nice to hole that 8-footer on 18 to make birdie - it settled us a bit as we knew they had to do something special to tie.”
Securing the win at Carden Park was the cherry on top of a bogey-free week for long-time friends Walker and Poppleton.
Walker commented: “We’ve been rooming together for about 12 years - we’ve been pals for a long time and it’s nice to do something like this together because we don’t get a lot of time to do it as we’re both working a lot.”
The son of Master PGA Professional, Graham Walker, James was able to go one better than his dad with his win at Carden Park. He added: “My dad tried to win this tournament for years and never quite did it, so it was nice for me to finally get our name on the trophy.”
Christopher Croucher (The Dyke Golf Club) and James Ford (Robert Rock Academy) finished in third place with a final score of 24-under-par, whilst James Freeman (Retford Golf Club) and Adam Keogh (Woodhall Spa Golf Club) and Jack Winer (Abridge Golf & Country Club) and James Watts (Kingsway Golf Centre) finished tied-4th on 23-under-par.
