Adam does it again to seal return to final

Adam Hodkinson repeated last year’s victory as he took the Galvin Green PGA Assistants’ Championship North qualifier at Hesketh Golf Club.

The Chorlton-Cum-Hardy Golf Club assistant carded a three-under-par round of 69 to win by one shot ahead of Matthew Daley (Hainsworth Park Golf Club).

It was a case of deja vu for the Sheffield-born player who won this event last year at Penwortham Golf Club before going on to finish fifth in the showpiece final.

Now Hodkinson is determined to improve on his performance of 12 months ago when he joins 16 other qualifiers who will play in the £32,000 grand final to be held at Little Aston Golf Club near Birmingham from August 3-5.

But he says this year’s qualifier was very different to a year ago.

“I played very steadily here at Hesketh,” he said.

“Last year I had an awful round but still managed to win. This time I just wanted to keep things solid and it worked out.

“I made three-under-par but I didn’t really think that would be good enough to win it if i’m honest.

“It was actually my third win in a row. I’ve been working on my swing with the head professional at Chorlton Dave MacKinnon and that’s paying off.

“I feel as though I’m in good form. I wanted to win the final last year but I had a bad first round and ended up fifth.

“I would like to improve on that this year if I can and that’s going to be a target.”

Hodkinson said that MacKinnon’s advice has been a big help to him this year.

“I made a decision to work on my game during the winter and Dave’s been a huge help there,” he added.

Hodkinson says he has never played at Little Aston before as he stages his bid to finish top of the leaderboard in the Midlands.

“I don’t know the venue at all, but I hear good things about it so I’m really looking forward to getting to the final,” he said.