Jack Yule's first big taste of professional tournament golf ended in bitter disappointment yesterday.
After leaving the amateur ranks last year, the 23-year-old from King's Lynn set his sights on the third tier Europro Tour, but a poor performance in final qualifying means he may well have to look elsewhere to make a living.
Yule comfortably came through a pre-qualifying event to book his place at Frilford Heath in Oxfordshire alongside 239 other hopefuls. But it all went wrong on Wednesday as a four over par 76 featuring nine dropped shots left him well off the pace, with a 73 yesterday doing little to repair the damage.
A five over par total left him well outside the top 100, meaning he will struggle to get into tournaments once the season gets under way next month.
Rookery Park pair Chris Soanes (74, 76) and Guy Mummery (77, 75) also missed the cut by some distance, as did Great Yarmouth and Caister's Alex Holmes, who has played on the tour before. He opened up with an encouraging 71 which left him just outside the top 20 and well placed to play all three rounds but slumped to an 80 yesterday to crash down the leaderboard.
Meanwhile Norfolk Ladies continued their preparations for the summer campaign with a traditional warm-up fixture against the county's senior men at Great Yarmouth and Caister.
Sammy Martin's team came up against formidable opposition, losing 10 down, but it was still a more than useful exercise in the build-up to the Norfolk Championships at King's Lynn from May 11-13 and County Week at Woodbridge from June 18-22.
Vanessa Mann and Chloe Gibbs lost two down against Terry Norman and Robb Webb, Tracey Williamson and Imogen Leeder lost three down against David Patrick and John Taverner, Jasmine Campbell and Jo Herd halved with Graham Turner and Tony Richards and Shelly Pleasance and Megan Mann lost five down to Paul Ellis and Mark Skipper.
'We will take much from our run out,' said the skipper. 'I would like to congratulate the senior men on their very competitive play, good humour and friendship. May we all look forward to a very successful season.'
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