Competition heats up in Britain's Best Putter

The first of the Regional Finals took place in Britain's Best Putter over the weekend and the competition is already proving to be extremely exciting. On Saturday club qualifiers from the North West competed at Formby Hall in Lancashire for a place in the BBP Grand Final at The Grove on October 13th.

The lucky qualifiers were treated to a fantastic day of competition on Formby Hall's finest putting green. Each were asked to select an Odyssey putter and a Callaway golf ball to use in the competition and an Odyssey fitting expert was on hand to advise them in their selection.

They then competed a 36 hole strokeplay qualifier, where every putt was critical towards securing a place in the matchplay knockout. Scoring was impressive, despite the difficulty of many putts, with the top 8 putters progressing to the matchplay knockout. In a very tense and exciting afternoon several of the matches went all the way to the 18th and were won with a single putt.

But it was the eventual champion Chris Bracewell from Heron's Reach Golf Club in Blackpool who managed to hold his nerve to take the overall title of BBP North West Champion.

"It was very nerve racking but great fun taking part," said Chris. "I just tried to stick to my routine, read every putt and focus on the spot I wanted to roll it over. Luckily I had a good day on the greens and the putts dropped! I'm really looking forward to the Grand Final at The Grove in October and feel confident I can put in the same performance on the greens there. Bring it on!"

Joining Chris in the Grand Final at The Grove on October 13th 2012 will be BBP North West Runner Up Neal O'Connor (Formby Hall GC), and Semi Finalists John Redmond (Vale Royal GC) and David Baren (Bentham GC).

HOW THE MATCHES WERE WON... QUARTER FINALS

David Baren defeated Louise Aspden 2&1

Chris Bracewell defeated Rob McLean 1up

John Redmond defeated Jim Camp 2up

Neal O'Connor defeated Alan Yuil 2up

SEMI-FINALS

Chris Bracewell defeated David Baren 1up

Neal O'Connor defeated John Redmond 1up

FINAL

Chris Bracewell defeated Neal O'Connor 2&1