Ruebotham and Watson hoping to hit crews control

Welwyn Garden City Golf Club professional James Ruebotham is setting his sights on another strong performance with Rob Watson in the Golfbreaks.com PGA Fourball Championship.

The pair finished joint fifth in last year’s final which was held at Whittlebury Park Golf Club in Northamptonshire.

Now Ruebotham and Watson, of The Shire London, will be aiming to get through from the East qualifying event which is being staged at Enfield’s Crews Hill Golf Club on June 18.

They are bidding for a place in this year’s £33,250 BMW-supported showpiece event which will be played at Belton Woods Golf Club in Lincolnshire on August 29-31.

The duo are making the competition a priority after impressing 12 months ago.

And while Ruebotham knows qualifying for the final is no formality, they will be disappointed not to make it.

“We played well last year, Rob’s the solid player and I threw in a lot of birdies, it was quite a good combination,” he said.

“I have a good playing partner and last year’s course for the final was a great mix of holes.

“If I’d played a bit better we might have finished higher!”

But Ruebotham admitted the pair had high hopes anyway going into last year’s event.

“We quite fancied our chances, we play a lot together and hopefully we can do something similar again if we perform decently,” he added.

“But we know each other from when we used to play EuroPro Tour golf a couple of years ago, and now we do PGA stuff and have mutual friends - and we live quite close to each other. We get on well so that’s how we came to be playing together in this event.

“I’m happy to pick Rob to play in the competition. I’ve played Crews Hill before, there are holes where you can be aggressive or choose to play a bit safer.

“I do like the course, I’ve played a couple of pro-ams there.”


Other teams from the East of England playing at Crews Hill include: Stuart Brown (Thorpe Wood Golf Course) and Adam Pike (Brampton Park Golf Club);   Nick Cains (Swaffham Golf Club) and  Chase Davis (Marriott Sprowston Manor Hotel);   Darren Charlton (Dunstable Downs) and Alex White (Romley Golf Club);  Andrew Dellar and Craig Ferris (Luton Hoo); and Jack Winer (Abridge Golf & Country Club) and James Watts (Kingsway Golf Course)


For more information on the event at Crews Hill Golf Club, click here.