Rutherford blows away field and Wood & Amey clinch doubles at the British Minigolf Grand Prix

The 2024 BMGA season came to a windswept and emphatic close with Strokes Minigolf Club players winning the last titles of the season in the all new fast paced Grand Prix format – which included a three round Singles tournament followed by a two round Doubles tournament.

In the Singles, the field struggled to post the sort of scores seen in years gone by on the popular Pirate course at Hastings Adventure Golf – largely due to an excellent refelting of the course, and of course also due to Storm Bert throwing gusts of almost 60mph off of the sea and onto the course! A very British end to the British minigolf calendar!

The Singles title had all to play for with several names likely to have fancied their chances. As has been the case in the past few months at several tournaments, James Rutherford soon found himself powering through to the top end. Sat on -5 after Round 1, James carried a 2 shot lead through to Round 2 which he maintained posting a solid -3 scorebuilder – heading into the final Round with a 2 shot lead from Will Donnelly. Elsewhere in the field, nobody looked likely to break through and challenge these two leaders, with the only upwards moving score an excellent 32 from Terry Exall.

The final round saw a frankly ridiculous score of 26 by James Rutherford to take his total (and the title) with a commendable -18. In years gone by, a 26 may have seemed possible at the top end, but with the current course and weather as it was it’ll remain a round for the ages! In the end, James won by a remarkable eight shots, with clubmates Will Donnelly (-10) and Martin Greenhead (-8) taking 2nd and 3rd to fill the podium with the light blue of Strokes Minigolf Club. An imperious performance in what could be best described as “links minigolf” – and an excellent end to the season for the resurgent Great Britain captain!

As the murmurs of “how on earth did he hit a 26 in this weather” settled, the field quickly reassembled to conclude the day with a quick blast of two rounds of Doubles. Rutherford and UK No1 Seve Kukielka started as hot favourites, but the weather and format proved a real leveller. The pairings of Amey/C.Wood and T.Exall/A.Exall hit excellent blue rounds of 29 to open and take a joint lead. Further back, teams such as Harman/Ryan hit a great 33 and Relf/Kelly a creditable 34 to stay in contention.

In the final round of the day, the experienced pair of Rutherford/Kukielka pushed back into contention before a brutal bounce out on the 18th hole snuffed out their push for the title. This left it clear for Adrian Amey and Chris Wood to take the title on -9, with the Exall brothers piping the unlucky Rutherford and Kukielka in a play off for 2nd and 3rd places. Adrian and Chris proved very popular winners on the day and played excellent throughout – a huge well done to both, enjoy your title and the frankly oversized trophy that comes with it!

You can find the full results for the singles here and the doubles here