Roberts brushes past rivals to seal Portugal spot

Dentistry supplier Luke Roberts crowned a dream day at Fulford Golf Club by qualifying for the Lombard Trophy in Portugal.

The Keighley Golf Club amateur, left, had been targeting a place in the qualifying event for years.

And when he did finally get chance to rub shoulders with the professionals, he ended up topping the leaderboard.

He teamed up with Keighley’s PGA Professional Andrew Rhodes to post an eight-under-par round of 64 which was enough to win by one shot ahead of Andrew Miller and Richard Hardy (Ashby Decoy Golf Club) and Peter Raine and Matthew Tweddle (Blackwell Grange Golf Club),

Roberts and Rhodes will now take part in the £41,500 final at Pestana Golf Resort, Vila Sol from September 22-23.

The event, which is held in association with Coca-Cola, attracts entries from more than 700 clubs, has more than 100,000 amateurs taking part and requires 14 regional finals to cater for the huge demand.

Roberts, 24, who plays off a handicap of 13, was delighted with the result.

“It’s like a miracle, I was quite emotional when I came off at the end, I’ve been practising for a month to try and get my game right for this,” he said.

“To get to this event and play with Andrew and alongside pros from all over the north of England was tremendous.

“But to win was just unreal. Andrew made sure there was no pressure and once we had our first birdie then all my nerves disappeared. I was able to play at ease after that.”

** Check out more great images from Fulford on Flickr here.

Roberts has been playing since he was a teenager but always wanted to play in this event.

“I’d been trying for years but now I’ve got a chance to go to the final,” he added.

For Rhodes, the victory was just as special as he has narrowly missed out on a number of occasions.

“One year we came top and even had our photos taken as winners - that was a bit presumptuous as the last group came in and made the same score as us then won on countback,” he recalled.

“I’ve come second in this as well so to finally get to the final for the first time is great.

“I don’t think Luke got much sleep the night before. But he needn’t have worried as we didn’t drop a shot and made a nett eagle at the ninth hole which meant we were five-under-par at the turn.

“We made a birdie at the 18th hole which was crucial as two other groups made seven under par after us. 

“But we hoped we’d done enough even though we had a three hour wait to find out we’d definitely won.”