TAUNTON golfer Jon Ball and playing partner Melissa McMahon put in an outstanding performance to take second in the 2017 World Final of the Audi quattro Cup, the largest global amateur golf tournament, at the Quivira Golf Club, in Mexico.

They came incredibly close to overall victory, missing out by a single point on the last hole to a team from Japan.

Theirs is the best result by a UK team in the 27-year history of the Audi quattro Cup, with 51 teams from 45 countries contesting the World Final.

The spectacular Jack Nicklaus-designed course lies on granite cliffs and dune ridges by the Baja Peninsula, where the Sea of Cortez meets the Pacific Ocean.

Ball said: “The whole Audi quattro Cup experience from the first event in the UK through to the World Final was amazing. Quivira was the most breathtaking course I have ever played.”

TAUNTON & Pickeridge golfer Tom Sloman has been named in the six-man England A squad that will take on seven other countries in the Costa Ballena match in Spain in January.

The 20-year-old Somerset star, who won the Under-21 Dutch Junior Open back in July, will compete at Costa Ballena Golf Club from January 23-26.

The other countries taking part are the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands and Spain.

England squad: George Bloor (Derbyshire), Bailey Gill (Yorkshire), Ben Jones (Northamptonshire), Josh McMahon (Cheshire), Nick Poppleton (Yorkshire), Tom Sloman (Somerset).