Lincolnshire amateur hopes to mash the opposition

A potato researcher from Lincolnshire will compete in the final of the Lombard Trophy at Gleneagles just three weeks before the Ryder Cup visits the Perthshire venue.

Peter Hewitt will hope to dig out his best form when he partners his Woodhall Spa PGA Professional Scott Emery in the £43,600 grand final on September 2-3.

The duo have worked hard on their game since they qualified following a nail-biting play-off against Bulwell Forest duo Andrew Willey and Chris Smedley in the Lindrick regional final.

They had been behind following a bogey at the sixth hole, but an eagle at the seventh gave them a strong position from which they were able to chip away at the Nottingham duos advantage.

Since then family-man Hewitt (pictured right) has had his first lesson with Emery (left) in an attempt to iron out any weaknesses ahead of the big event.

The final marks Hewitt’s most important day of golf in 35 years playing the game, an obsession that started when he received his first set of clubs from his father aged four.

The Lombard Trophy is the biggest pro-am event in Europe, with 700-plus entrants competing across 16 regional finals.

And this year’s championship will take place close to the towering grandstands which are waiting to welcome visitors to this year’s Ryder Cup.

Hewitt, who was a junior member at Formby before moving to Lincolnshire to progress his career, admitted that the scale of the duo’s achievements in getting to the final has hit home since his return from a family holiday in the roasting Greek sun.         

“I’ve won club competitions and things like that in the past,” he explained, “but if we could win this it would just be on another level.

“I think I’m as confident as you can be going into something like this, but I’ve never played Gleneagles before so we’ll see how it goes.

“I’m delighted that we’ll be playing the King’s Course. I know it has an incredible amount of history to it so it will be a great honour to play it.

“I don’t think this is an event that we ever expected to make it to, but now we’re there of course we’ll go out there and do our best to win it.”

Among the competitors facing Hewitt and Emery in the final will be army sergeant Shaun Clare and his Sleaford PGA Professional Nigel Pearce.

The duo marched into the final at Gleneagles after claiming a one-shot victory in the regional final at King’s Lynn.