Essex golfer eyes hot streak at Blackmoor

A former chief fire officer is eyeing a place in the blazing heat of Turkey for the Golfplan Insurance PGA Pro-Captain Challenge final.

David Turner, who headed up Essex Fire and Rescue Service before retiring, will tee off alongside his Orsett PGA Professional David Wood in the regional qualifier at Blackmoor on August 1.

The 62-year-old from Brentwood only took up golf aged 50, but overcame his late start to reduce his handicap to a more-than-respectable six before taking up the prestigious position at his local club.

Now he believes he can cap it all off by securing a place in the final of the Canopius-supported event, which carries a total prize fund of £25,000 and will take place over the PGA Sultan Course at Antalya Golf Club on November 26-27.

“It’s going to be really good to represent Orsett in this tournament,” Turner said.

“Once you become captain you are representing the club seven days a week at all sorts of different events, but this is something completely different.

“I’m more used to handing out the prizes rather than being in the running for them myself!

“Hopefully we can do well and get to the final. David is an excellent pro and we have only just recently been for a practice round at Blackmoor, which went really well.

“It’s an excellent course and the greens are very tough – I can’t see the winning score being too low if I’m honest.”

Should Turner, a keen footballer before he took up golf, qualify for the final, it would mark a quick return to Turkey for the golf-fanatic, who enjoys travelling to play courses all over the world.

“I went over to Turkey recently with a few colleagues,” he explained.

“It was an amazing trip, the course and the weather were incredible – you couldn’t really fault any aspect of the whole trip.

“I’ve been lucky to play a lot of great courses since I retired, I’ve been to places like Muirfield, Gleneagles, Turnberry and my personal favourite Isleworth over in America.

“It’s been good and I didn’t start playing until relatively late because I was playing football until I was 50.

“I was so used to chasing a ball around on a Saturday morning that I thought it would be good to chase a different-sized ball around instead!

“Golf was something I had always dabbled with, and now I have got into it properly I have really enjoyed it.

“It’s important that when you retire you go on to do something else, and golf has allowed me to go out and experience things that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to otherwise.

Other pairings competing in the Blackmoor regional qualifier include: Graham Cowley and Peter Applegate (a) (Army), Adam Sawyer and Jeff Bowden (a) (Dudsbury), Rob Edwards and Stephen Haines (a) (Lee-on-the-Solent), and Matthew Paget and Nigel Hopkinson (a) (Royal Mid Surrey).