It was a big day for Sidmouth Golf Club on Monday and Neil Holland in particular, writes John Barnard.

The day didn’t start well, the early starters getting very wet and abandoning their round. The Met Office predicted an improvement around lunchtime and apart from one very heavy shower (I was out on the course in it) they were correct.

Starting late in the day, Neil Holland just got round before the light faded. In doing so, he achieved a personal milestone, getting down to plus two handicap for the first time in his fairly long and illustrious amateur career.

He had an unblemished round, thirteen pars and five birdies so a round of gross 61 and won on countback from Nick Baker who would have hoped to have won with his score. Playing off a handicap of 17, Nick finished with four pars to improve his round. In third place was Martyn White. In the Challenge Cup final this Sunday, he almost lost a shot due to his great round. He scored 38 points and is now on an exact handicap of one-point-five (rounded up to two).

There was no change in the leadership of the birdie count eclectic this week, the leader is sunning himself in Spain.