Plain sailing for Lakeside after late birdie blitz

Lakeside Golf Course reached the final of the SkyCaddie PGA Pro-Captain Challenge just nine years after the Welsh club was formed.

Captain Steve Owen and PGA Professional Grant Edwards won the North West qualifying round held at Dunham Forest Golf Club.

The Montgomery-based pairing finished top of the leaderboard with 45 points after finishing their round with three successive birdies.

That put then two points ahead of Chris Cousins and Graham Poland, of Cheshire’s Helsby Golf Club, and Josh Charnock and Richard Alli, from Holywell Golf Club in Flintshire.

Now Edwards and Owen will play in the £22,000 final, in association with Golfplan, which takes place between November 6-7 at Arabella Golf Mallorca.

But 14-handicapper Owen explained that the Lakeside club is in its infancy - marking their 10th anniversary next year - which makes reaching the showpiece occasion even more special.

And it was the first time they had entered the competition.

“We were hoping for a good day but it went much better than expected,” said the 57-year-old financial advisor.

“It’s the first time we’ve played in the competition but we’ll certainly be supporting it from now on.

“I started at Lakeside when the club was formed nine years ago. We’re a new, young club.

“We were a nine hole course but we’ve just opened up new tees to effectively make it an 18 hole course.

“I think they saw a chance to develop a course there and it’s been moving along quite nicely.

“Within 10 years, we’ve achieved this, so that’s quite good.”

But Edwards admitted neither of them expected to be heading for Spain even after they had sealed victory.

“We had a great back nine and the last three holes were particularly good,” he said.

‘I said at the 16th hole we needed to pick up one birdie, and I got three.

“It’s the first time we’ve entered, I’d mentioned it to previous captains and it didn’t quite work out.

“But this time we were both really up for it. I’d say it’s a pretty good debut in the competition.

“We didn’t realise we would be able to qualify for Mallorca by winning here. I think we assumed there’d be another round to get through - but there was one space available and we got it, so that was unbelievable.”

Full results from the event at Dunham Forest Golf Club can be found by clicking here.

For further information on the Skycaddie Pro Captain Challenge, click here.