Dudsbury duo play ‘blind’ to clinch final spot

Mark Wiggett and Lee Thompson marked their first appearance at Filton Golf Club with victory in the Golfbreaks.com PGA Fourball Championship West qualifying event.

The seasoned Dudsbury Golf Club duo - who came second in the final almost a decade ago - finished top of the leaderboard by just one shot after carding an eight-under-par round of 62 at the Bristol venue.

Wiggett and Thompson, both familiar names in the PGA in England and Wales (West) Order of Merit list, played a consistent round without a dropping a shot on their way to victory.

But Thompson admitted that they had to play the course without knowing anything about it.

“We went out there and played it blind,” he said.

“It wasn’t a course we’d been to before and we didn’t know any of the places to avoid.

“But sometimes that’s a good thing and we really were never in any trouble.”

A run of four birdies in six holes midway through the round made sure they were never in danger.

The Bournemouth-based teaching professionals will join eight other qualifiers at the £33,250 BMW-supported grand final at St Mellion in Cornwall on August 20-22.

They pipped two sets of teams from Cornwall with Richard O’Hanlon (St Kew) and Richard Sadler (Killiow) - and Grant Slater and Gary Lenaghan (Trevose Golf & Country Club) finishing joint second.

And St Mellion PGA Professional Ross Whitelock will be relishing playing the final venue over his home course after qualifying in fourth place with Paul Hendriksen (Dinnaton Golf Club).

Thompson admitted that he was relishing the final.

“St Mellion is a terrific course and we’re both really looking forward to playing that venue,” he said.

“We’ve both played there a lot.

“I’ve been playing with Mark for years now, we gel together well and it’d be great to go one better than when we finished joint second at Hesketh.

“At Filton we felt comfortable, I ended up with five birdies and Mark holed three.”

A four-way play-off decided the final qualifying place with Welshmen Matthew Owen (Garnant Golf Club) and James Honey (The Golf Studio Swansea) finishing ninth.