2018 Arthur Cooper Final 6th. May

Former Alty GC captain Steve Wilkinson has emerged from a period of self-confessed frustration with his golf game to win the Arthur Cooper .

Wilkinson recorded +2/-1/+1 and was the ONLY golfer of the 23 finalists  to effectively beat the course and record a plus score .

Steve had played an extremely solid front 9 scrambling excellently when needed ( a superb chip in from a forced drop by the greenside tree on 8th to save par a highlight ) and he didn’t concede to the course until dropping 3 holes between 11-16 to begin slipping out of contention . Wilkinson crucially bounced back to win the last 2 holes to end +1 which was good enough for victory .

Popular high-handicapper Gary Shaughnessy (-3/+3/0) has shown glimpses of form this season after spending the last 8 months of 2017 away from competition through injury . Today he recovered from a poor front 9 which saw him at -3 to put together 6 level holes in his back 9 before winning his last 3 to leave him just a hole short of the winner .

Third placed golfing maverick Andrew Window (-3/+3/0) matched Shaughnessys’ efforts and his response to a -3 front 9 was to win 4 of the next 5 holes on the toughest section of the course and then share the next to stand at +1 with just 3 to play . Crucially he lost 16-17 and his win on 18 came too late ... a credible 3rd place finish nevertheless !

Another ex-Alty GC captain Norman Crowther ( 0/0/0) also achieved parity with the course in 4th whilst 2017 Arthur Cooper winner Keith Walton (+1/-2/-1) put up a stout defence in 5th place .

Such was the difficulty of the event that no-one did well enough to warrant a drop in handicap !