Shell Winter Tournament

Shell Winter Tournament
Tournament information
Location Weybridge, Surrey, England (final)
Established 1967
Course(s) St George's Hill Golf Club (final)
Final year 1968
Final champion
Brian Huggett

The Shell Winter Tournament was an invitation professional golf tournament. The event consisted of a series of single round competitions, all played on Saturdays from 4 November to 9 December, with TV coverage on ITV's World of Sport. There were four qualifying rounds, two semi-finals and a final. The final was planned for 9 December but was postponed because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak and eventually played on 20 April 1968. The event was sponsored by the retail market division of Shell-Mex and BP.

Format

First prize was £250 for the qualifying rounds, £500 for the semi-finals and £1,000 for the final. In addition there was an extra prize of £10, £20 or £40 for each stroke the winner finished ahead of the field.

Two qualifying rounds were played on 4 November with two more played on 11 November. 20 players competed in each event with the leading 9 advancing to the semi-final stage. The qualifying contest at Long Ashton was reduced to 14 holes because of bad weather. Ties for qualifying places were decided on the last nine holes.

The semi-finals were played on 11 and 18 November at Mere Golf Club, Mere, Cheshire and Whittington Heath Golf Club, Whittington, Staffordshire. 10 players qualified from each event. Brief coverage of the semi-finals was shown on ITV's World of Sport. Finlay Morris, who had competed at Mere, was killed in a road traffic accident returning home to Scotland.

The final was planned for 9 December at St George's Hill Golf Club, Weybridge, Surrey, but was postponed because of the foot-and-mouth outbreak and eventually played on 20 April 1968. There was again coverage on World of Sport. There were two rounds of 9 holes with lunch in between. The final was won by Brian Huggett with rounds of 35 and 33, a shot ahead of John Panton, who scored 34 and 35. Huggett won a total of £1,685, £125 in the qualifying round, £520 in the semi-final and £1,040 in the final.

Winners

Date Round Winner(s) Country Venue Score Margin
of victory
Runner(s)-up Winner's
share (£)
Ref
4 Nov 1967 Qualifying Stuart Murray  Scotland Hilton Park 69 1 stroke England Fred Boobyer
England Robin Davenport
England Mel Hughes
Scotland David Melville
250 [1]
4 Nov 1967 Qualifying Brian Waites  England Long Ashton 53
(14)
Tie England Neil Coles
England Peter Green
England Max Faulkner
250 [2]
11 Nov 1967 Qualifying Alex Caygill
Tony Grubb
 England
 England
Pannal 73 Tie Shared 250
and 125
[3]
11 Nov 1967 Qualifying Peter Gill  England Purdis Heath 69 2 strokes Wales Brian Huggett 250 [3]
18 Nov 1967 Semi-final Eric Brown
Gordon Cunningham
 Scotland
 Scotland
Mere 72 Tie Shared 500
and 250
[4]
25 Nov 1967 Semi-final Brian Huggett  Wales Whittington Heath 68 1 stroke England Keith MacDonald 500 [5]
20 Apr 1968 Final Brian Huggett  Wales St George's Hill 68 1 stroke Scotland John Panton 1000 [6]

References

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