England Golf: Boultons bag dramatic Ping Plate win

A chip in nett birdie – and with a Ping wedge no less – helped settle a dramatic Plate final for Nottinghamshire mother and daughter Helen and Rachel Boulton.

The duo were locked together with two other pairs after topping the leaderboard with 45 points at the Ping women’s fourball betterball championship at Gainsborough.

But when the groups returned to the 18^th hole of the Thonock course for a sudden death playoff, it was 20-handicapper Helen who struck the winning blow.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Helen, from Springwater. “It’s crazy!” added Rachel, who was the 2015 Nottinghamshire county champion and helped her team to win last year’s English County Finals.

Second and third places were decided on countback. Bridgnorth’s Jing Reade and her partner, Heather Stiles, finished runners-up, ahead of Carole Morris and Jill Sparkes, from Romsey.

It is the 11^th year of the Ping championship, which is run by England Golf, and this year has seen the largest ever number of clubs take part.

More than 16,500 women from 890 clubs took part in the qualifying stages.

The top 50 pairs went to the Grand Final with the next 50 competing in the Plate.

The Boultons have an excellent record in this championship.

They’ve reached the Plate final before and came 5th in last year’s Grand Final.

But as the play-off was announced Rachel was counting the cost of a three-putt during regulation play.

“I had a putt for an eagle on the 6th and I left it about 1ft away,” she said. “I went to tap it in and missed! I thought ‘oh my gosh’ but I said to mum let’s just keep going.”

They stuck to the task and when Helen had her big chance she had just one aim.

“I just thought ‘get it close.’ That’s what Rachel was saying to me all day long.”

Her chip from the fringe started on target and stayed there, popping into the hole to applause.

Pictures courtesy of Leaderboard Photography