ROSS Golf Club's 2024 Championship Knock-out Finals day provided members with an intriguing 36 holes of match play golf to follow to decide who would become their Men's Champion, reports KEITH RAY.
As both finalists in Cam Haines and Dan Evans were scratch World Handicap Index players, a close contest was envisaged and so it proved.
While Dan only joined the Gorsley-based club two years ago and was appearing in his first club championship final, he showed no nerves in a high quality match in which birdies were needed to win holes, and suitably the match was all-square at the half-way point.
As Cam has been club champion in four of the past seven years, he began to show his quality and experience and a run of three birdies in four holes saw him on the brink of victory, being three up with just five holes to play.
Dan however responded brilliantly and with an exceptional birdie on the highly challenging 17th and his 35th hole, Cam needed to make a nervous five-footer on the final green to claim his fifth title, which he duly did.
With Cam's grandfather, father and sister following his progress, there were three generations of the Haines family to join him in the after-match celebrations to make it a glorious family occasion.
Cam now joins Mike Lane and Tony Howells in a select band, who in their prime also recorded five titles apiece.
This also enables Cam to focus his attention on his 'continuous learning' processes in his quest to become the best that he can be, and possibly match the achievement of seven title wins by Alex Aldrich-Blake, who currently stands alone in the Ross Club's 121-year history.