WIGGLES THE WOODHALL STAR
Venue - Woodhall Spa
Winner - Tom Wigglesworth
Runner-up - Peter Steed
Hound - Will Rowe
The 11th Jacket what a not so distant memory due to its unusually late staging and with Matt Madigan’s final round heroics at Manor House fresh in the golfers’ minds, off they all set each one of them with the aim of writing their own chapter in the history of the most famous of handicap-adjusted golf stories in the South West.
Despite the pleasing absence of COVID for the first time at The Jacket since 2019, we had Your Golf Travel’s unrivalled golf travel experience from over 3500 designations in 24 countries to make logistics needlessly complicated.
Indeed it was their utter incompetence that rewarded The Tour with a welcome upgrade to Woodhall Spa - home to officially the hardest course in the UK and also the world’s 60th best course, the famously terrifying Hotchkin course.
The form players were previous Jacket winners Andrew Macallister and Tom Wigglesworth, and the 2021 Tour Champs winner Martin Jeffers; all of whom had already bagged a W in 2022. However the betting strongly favoured a new winner with Jeffers, Brook McLaughlin, Doug Albon and Will Rowe all at evens to add their names to the sleeve of the The Jacket jacket.
Round 1 proved attritional with many players struggling to get on top of the serenely beautiful Bracken course; noted for its dramatic woodland vistas and large, undulating greens.
The first round started as the first round of The Jacket always starts; with the Members award given to the player with the best first blow. Harry Gray left the traps as he intended to go on and was the winner having opted for long and straight through the trees positioned to intimidate tight on either side of the fairway.
The round one lead was held by The 10th Jacket champion, Tom Gange, on two under after a 0-3-3-0 finish with Tom Wigglesworth one back. The 4th Jacket winner Ed Bell also started well whilst joint-favourite Will Rowe struggled posting just 20pts including twelve double bogies in the first fourteen holes.
Due to the unfavourable tee times, the groups for rounds two and three were set with messrs Gange Snr and Wigglesworth joined by Bell Snr and McLaughlin in the lead group. Behind them, all set to charge was a group of previous The Jacket winners - Madigan, Macallister, Chris Chesterman and Peter Steed - all within just five shots of the lead with 36 to play.
Off last and very much in contention for the award no one wants - The Hound - were Rowe, Jeffers, Tom Heywood and The 8th Jacket winner, Tim Brewster.
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Round two kicked off in glorious conditions as the players took on the Hotchkin; famous for its cavernous bunkers, supposedly deep enough to lose a double decker bus in, and brutally penal heath and gorse lurking around every possible corner.
Brewster worked himself away from The Hound finishing a sumptuous round of -2 with a dreamy birdie on 18. Whilst George Vaughan also went under par to give himself the faintest look at glory.
Round one leader, Tom Gange, dropped back whilst Tom Wigglesworth balanced four blobs with thee net eagles to take a four shot lead into final round.
Rowe further strengthened his claim for The Hound with a round of +18 whilst Ed Green and Albon also fancied a look following second rounds of +19 and +17 respectively. And a +1 round from Jeffers, including a mega 60ft birdie hole out from down town on the fifth, helped move him away from peril whilst also bagging him the much coveted Bilbo prize for longest putt.
Cajun chocked baguettes were quickly hoovered up and promptly washed down with pints before the warriors set out to battle for the final round.
The now traditional long drive competition was won by now traditional long drive winner Matt Johnson.
The pin seeker award for nearest the pin was won by George Vaughan for his killer shot in on the 16th although this wasn’t enough to slow his fall down the leaderboard and firmly out of contention.
Wigglesworth’s lead of four soon grew as his putter increased in temperature. He posted a -3 final round to finish on +1, nine shots clear of his nearest rival, Peter Steed.
The chasing pack were tightly grouped with a handful of shots separating the next eight players but unfortunately for the pack, the Champion elect had selected unbeatable mode - as he did in 2019 at The K Club during his maiden Jacket win - and there was no getting close to him as he stormed away from the pack in truly emphatic style.
It was in equally emphatic, and maybe slightly less impressive, style that pre-event-joint-favourite Will Rowe won The Hound with a final score of +42.
And with that and all the usual pomp and ceremony that included a commissioner-organised Spitfire and Lancaster bomber fly-by, The 12th Jacket came to a close.
The circus rolled out of Lincolnshire, enriched by another historic staging of The Jacket, and on to pastures new (and some old). The Tour collectively looked forward to seeing whether our new Champ, Tom Wigglesworth, could successfully go for the hat trick in 2023 to become the first three time winner of the the most famous prize in the whole of West Country handicap-adjusted golf.
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