MARK Wiggett has come within inches of picking up seriously big prizes for holes-in-one over the past couple of weeks on the West Region.

The Dudsbury touring professional is still pondering over his bad luck at Salisbury. His 6-iron tee shot on the 163-yard 18th finished two inches away.

Had the ball spun back a fraction his bank balance would have been swelled by £10,000.

He moved on to the re-arranged pro-am at Forest Hills in the Forest of Dean and was less also a few inches away from winning a car on another par three, the 160-yard 14th.

This time he used a 7-iron. "The ball went straight for the pin and finished a couple of feet behind the hole - but it was so close," he said.

But he finally made it at Torquay and amazingly for such a busy player he revealed that it was his first ace in almost 20 years as a professional.

Unfortunately there was no special prize so his feat went unrewarded although his albatross one at the par-four 305-yard downhill ninth hole certainly improved his score.

"That's how my luck is going," he said. He used a driver into the wind -"it's usually a 3-wood" - and the group ahead who were enjoying a drink at the halfway house, watched the ball go in.

The pro was his close pal Lee Thompson. "I couldn't see my ball and asked Lee where it was and he suggested I look in the hole."

It was his sixth hole in one but the previous five were all achieved at Queens Park during his days as an amateur - four on the drop-hole second and one on the seventh.

At Torquay he was not really challenging for a high finish until he birdied the eighth. He followed the albatross ace with another birdie to pick up five shots on three holes.

His three-under-par 66 brought his first win of the season, although he shared the honours with Graham Howell (Ferndown Forest), Andrew Sherborne (Kendleshire), George Ryall (Clevedon GC) and Michael Watson (Weymouth). They made £443 each.

Wiggett added: "I'm playing shocking golf at the moment and it's been a bad year. I just have to battle through it. Hopefully the Torquay experience will give me a boost for the rest of the season."