Chris Bainbridge came to Carnoustie Golf Links to play in the Craw’s Nest Tassie with very little expectations, other than aiming to play two rounds on the Championship Course. Six days and seven rounds on the Championship Course later, the Donnington Grove golfer lifted the Craw’s Nest Tassie with a hard-fought 4&2 victory over young Dutch player, Remco Zinken.
A 79 on the Championship Course followed by 71 on the Buddon Links saw Bainbridge comfortably into the Tassie matchplay, seven shots below the qualifying total of 157 while Remco qualified even more comfortably with gross score of 146.
Bainbridge opened up his matchplay campaign beating Alastair Hunter of Pitreavie GC 4&2 while Zinken was a 7&5 winner against David Griffin. In the 2nd Round, Bainbridge came up against 16-year old Rick Hessing who provided a stern test as he won 2UP, while Zinken played a second Breightmet member in a row, beating Nigel Hunter 4&2.
Bainbridge had an even closer game in the 3rd Round, managing a 1UP win against Craig Taylor and Zinken beat Alan Turton 3&1. Zinken had a narrower 2&1 victory over Gareth Hastie in the quarter-finals while Bainbridge overcame Liam James 4&3 in the same round.
In the semi-finals, Bainbridge was presented with his toughest test yet as he played top seed and last year’s Tassie winner, Andy Fyfe, beating him 3&1. In an all-Dutch semi-final, Zinken beat his regular playing partner Floris-Jan Oosterhof 4&2.
It had the makings of a fantastic final and it duly delivered. The gents could not be separated on the 1st hole but a par from Bainbridge at the 2nd put him 1UP.
Zinken brought things back to A/S by winning the 3rd before narrowly missing the chance to go 1UP at the 4th.
However, at the 5th Zinken produced a great long putt to go 1UP but after going out of bounds from the tee and hitting a provisional at Hogan’s Alley, Bainbridge took advantage to level the match once more.
Bainbridge won his second hole in a row at the 7th to return to 1UP. Holes 8 and 9 were halved but Bainbridge gained control of the match at the 10th by winning the hole to go 2UP.
The 11th and 12th holes were halved before Bainbridge went 3UP at the 13th.
Zinken pulled one back at the 14th but it was short lived as Bainbridge went 3UP again after winning the 15th.
The match came to an end at the 16th with Bainbridge winning 4&2, however, Zinken put in a terrific performance and is definitely one to watch in the future.
Bainbridge can now enter the Tassie hassle free for the next five years.