Charlton brews up a trip to Gleneagles

Wolverhampton brewery worker Steve Charlton (pictured right) toasted his place in the Lombard Trophy final at Gleneagles after a four-way tie for the top spot.

Charlton partnered South Staffs Golf Club PGA Professional Shaun Ball (left) in the regional final held at Coventry Golf Club.

The pair had played a practice round at the venue a few days beforehand- and it paid off as they carded a nine-under-par round of 64.

But that was matched by three other teams as Derek Craik and Peter Clements of Oxfordshire’s Frilford Heath Golf Club; Dusan Gavrilovic and Howard Holland, from Studley Wood Golf Club, also in Oxfordshire; and Steve Carter and John Madden, of Walmley Golf Club, also finished joint top of the leaderboard.

It was Ball and Charlton who emerged as winners though on countback.

That was largely due to two well-timed 20 foot putts from Ball at the 17th and 18th holes.

The South Staffs duo will now play in the £43,600 pro-am final over the King’s Course at Gleneagles in Scotland between September 2-3 - just three weeks before the Ryder Cup is held at the same venue.

And it will mean a return to Scotland for Charlton, 46, who moved to the Midlands from Dunfermline to work as a drayman for Banks’s Brewery.

“It’ll be like going back home although I’ve never played at Gleneagles before,” said the former semi-professional footballer who plays off a handicap of five.

“I only really started to work on my golf when I gave up playing football.

“I was with clubs like Chasetown, Rushall and Willenhall.

“But now I’m concentrating on golf and this is a great day for us.”

Charlton admitted that their preparations had been worthwhile.

“We’d done our homework and it made a difference, we knew which areas to keep out of,” he said.

Ball will be making his first appearance in the final after just missing in a previous regional final at Little Aston Golf Club.

“We’d been taking it very seriously,” he said.

“I can’t quite believe we’ve got there, particularly as four of us were tied for the lead.

“We had a good finish and that got us through.

“But as soon as Steve qualified to be the amateur player with me on the day I knew we had a chance.

“When we had our practice round, we made six-under but I felt we might need 10-under par to win it and it was a tense wait at the end thinking someone was going to overtake us.

“I was gobsmacked by the result. I’m over the moon.”