It was a beautiful warm weekend for the 20th Quarry Park Open on 20-21st September. 76 players came from far and wide, making this the biggest BDGA Tour event ever. All 4 rounds were played on the challenging "Black Course" layout. The Open division was hotly contested, tournament director Neil Webber got off to a flying start with a 55 in the morning round, but was overhauled by Simon Luard and Derek Robins who both shot 54 in the afternoon. On Sunday morning Derek and Simon had lacklustre rounds, allowing reigning QP and BDGA Tour champion Dan Ryan to edge his way back into comntention.
Going into the final 18, Simon had a 2 shot lead over Derek, with Dan a further 3 shots back. With 4 holes to play the race was on, with Simon holding a 1 shot lead over Derek and Dan. Derek parked his drive for a birdie on 15, leaving Simon the dilemma of whether to go for a risky 10m putt with the ground dropping away behind the basket. He kept his nerve, holed the putt, and preserved his lead. On hole 16, Dan had to take on a similarly risky putt to keep his challenge alive, but he missed his birdie and the return putt, to all but end his hopes of retaining the title. So we came to the last hole with Simon leading by 1. The tee and basket were taken back more than 10m from the usual position, bringing the out of bounds area very much in play. Derek was trailing by 1 and had to to take on that risk, it paid off with his drive ending up just 4m from the basket. Had Simon's drive been a metre further right he would have been just as close, but instead he caught some bushes and was out of bounds. He failed to make the par-save putt and Derek duly holed out for his birdie to claim the title.