Jones and Jessup spring back into Final

West regional captain Paul Jones has qualified for the Golfbreaks.com PGA Fourball Championship final for the third successive year with Carl Jessup.

The Ashley Wood Golf Club duo finished joint top of the leaderboard at the West qualifying round held at Mendip Spring Golf Club.

Dorset pairing Jones and Jessup carded an eight under par round of 63, at the Congresbury venue, along with Giuseppe Licata (Chipping Sodbury Golf Club) and Ross Langdon (Brickhampton Court Golf Complex) - and William Farley (Bovey Castle Hotel) and Ryan Pope (Exeter Golf & Country Club).

They will joins other qualifiers from the event at this year’s £33,250 BMW-supported showpiece event which will be played at Belton Woods Golf Club in Lincolnshire on August 29-31.

Jones is moving into his fourth year as head professional at the Blandford Forum based Ashley Wood while Jessup is an attached professional.

“I get Carl out of retirement a few times a year for this sort of event and that’s three finals on the spin for us now, and it was nice to finish joint top,” said Jones.

“Being West region captain this year, I’ve been playing a little bit more so my game’s been in pretty good shape.

“I had a very good start to the round and, when I feel asleep on the back nine, Carl did his bit. It was a good team effort.”

The two players have a long association in the game and that paid off at the qualifier.

“Carl’s been one of my best friends for 20-odd years, he used to play full-time and was on the Challenge Tour for a while,” added Jones.

“But he got out of that and now has his own finance company. He still likes playing a few events here and there. But he doesn’t like the pressure of full-time playing any more.

“That’s why the better ball set-up is great for him, he’s obviously got a very good game - but without the pressure.

“It was really nice for us at Mendip Spring, the conditions were perfect.”

Jones said it was a ‘great honour’ to be asked to be West captain.

“It came at the right time, I thought it’d be nice to get the clubs out again for this year after not playing full-time for a while, and I’ve been playing some nice golf,” he added.