MALDON Golf Club’s immediate past captain, Pete Hawkins, emerged victorious in the Key Trophy.

It was the final qualifying competition in the club’s annual Order of Merit, which was contested over the weekend.

The Key Trophy is a competition aimed at raising money for charity from competitors’ entry fees.

This year a total of £165 was raised for good causes.

Hawkins’ victory not only secured him the Key Trophy for the third time but also his fourth Tangent Trophy - the Order of Merit title for the men’s section Golfer of the Year.

The Key Trophy is contested in a most peculiar format where each competitor records their nett medal score and then deducts their stableford points to arrive at a Key Points tally, whereby the lower the score the better.

On a day of relatively high scoring, Hawkins returned a nett medal round of one-under-par 70, off his six handicap, to scored 37 stableford points, thereby amassing a Key total of 33.

Second with 35 Key points was club chairman Tony Davis.

The places from third to sixth were decided on count back as four players recorded scores of 37 Key points.

They were, respectively, Leon Griffiths, Ian Ladkin, Billy Mason and Paul Harris.

The nearest the pin prizes on Sunday went to Tony Davis on the par three fifth/14th hole and to John Meakes for the closest second shot to the par four sixth/15th.

The final positions in the Order of Merit were undecided until the completion of the Key Trophy, with any one of four players still able to claim the title.

In the end Hawkins claimed the title with a total of 372 points.

Second was former league-leader Darren Mason with 352 points, while Elliot Hawkins held on to third place with 337 points.

Keith Bannister secured fourth place on 308, while Bill Shelley just nudged out Alan Syrett for fifth position on countback after both players finished on 304 points.

Also on Sunday the presentation took place of the Durkin Family Foursomes trophy which was won the previous week by the father-and-son pairing of Darren and Billy Mason.

Their fantastic score of 43 stableford points (representing a level par foursomes round of gross 71) was by far the best winning score in this competition for many years.