Renishaw Park pair make sure of final place

Renishaw Park duo David Briggs and Nigel Parkinson stayed true to form as they sealed their place in the Golfplan Insurance PGA Pro-Captain Challenge in Turkey.

Captain Briggs (right) teamed up with PGA Professional Parkinson (left) as they carded an impressive eight-under-par round of 63 at Huddersfield Golf Club.

That earned them a two-shot victory as they beat Robert Ashbrook and Martin Stockton, of Nantwich’s Brookfield Golf Club into second place.

Briggs and Parkinson will now represent the Sheffield club in the £25,000 final supported by Canopius, over the PGA Sultan course at Antalya Golf Club, Turkey, from November 21-22.

And Briggs admitted the victory made up for them just missing out on a return to the PGA National Pro-Am Championship this year.

They were denied victory on countback but they made sure of a final place on this occasion.

Briggs, 55, who plays off one, said: “Nigel did a lot of damage on the front nine, and I steadied the ship coming back in difficult conditions.

“That’s how we work, if you give Nigel his head then he will play like he did here.

“But we play very well together and we hope to repeat that in the final.

“It makes up for not getting to the Pro-Am final, especially as we’ll be going out to Turkey.

“Eight-under-par didn’t seem like a good enough score to win it, but the weather played a big part with the rain and wind.”

Parkinson admitted that he and Briggs are a formidable combination.

The PGA Professional said: “Because we’ve played so much together as a pair we had some confidence before we even started.

“This performance didn’t really come as any surprise to us.

“The only problem was that I can be hot and cold at times, but that’s where David tends to come in.”