Field returns to winning ways

Daniel Field paid tribute to the man who put Ian Poulter on the road to success - after qualifying for the Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship Final.

Field - of Buntingford’s East Herts Golf Club - bounced back from suffering a burst appendix last year to win the East Qualifying event at South Herts Golf Club in Totteridge.

And he praised John O’Gaunt Golf Club Professional Lee Scarbrow - who coached Poulter in his early days - for getting him back on track.

Field - who grew up with Ryder Cup and European Tour player Poulter in Stevenage - carded a four-under-par round of 68 to win the event by one shot ahead of Jason Levermore (Channels Golf Club), Ian Ellis (Gt Yarmouth & Caister Golf Club) and Mark Allen (Eaton Golf Club).

They will join 11 other qualifiers at the £78,700 Peugeot-supported event at Blairgowrie in Scotland on August 5-8.

But for Field it was a case of needing to fine tune his game for this year.

Field’s appendix problems put him out of action and he called on the services of Scarbrow, one of Europe’s top coaches.

“I needed to go back and have some golf lessons again because I’d been out of action for a while,” explained Field.

‘It wasn’t a case of going back to basics, but we tell amateur players to go and have regular lessons so it was time for me to put that into practice.

“He was able to tell me what was wrong and how to fix it. It was good to work with someone like that, I just stick to coaching the short game!

“And Lee got me playing well again, after the problems of last year it’s given me a new sense of purpose.”

Field is already setting his sights high and wants to use this result as a platform to build on.

He added: “I’d like to be playing well enough to get into the PGA Cup squad.

“Now that I’ve won the qualifying event I can aim to pick up points in the final for next year.

“Plus I’d like to do well in the Order of Merit and maybe get to the end of season play offs.”

Field admitted his front nine performance meant his qualification was never in doubt.

“I got a little bit of luck,” he said. “But I had a couple of bogeys on the back nine, it was solid enough though and good to get a win under my belt.

“I’m pleased for East Herts too as it’s a great club to be part of.”