Scottish raiders take Formby spoils

Ranfurly Castle Golf Club amateur David Stewart, right, is hoping he can keep up his impressive record at Gleneagles after winning the Lombard Trophy regional final at Formby Golf Club.

Stewart teamed up with PGA Professional Tom Eckford and the pair topped the leaderboard by one shot after carding a nine-under-par round of 63 ahead of Morpeth Golf Club’s David Clark and Matthew Bowman

The Scottish duo will now play in the £80,000 final over the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles between September 1-2.

And 51-year-old Stewart has fond, if not expensive, memories of the famous venue.

“I’ve played there before and got a hole in one at the Queens Course at Gleneagles - it meant an expensive round of drinks but I’m looking forward to going back now,” said the Houston-based retail operations manager.

“Tom couldn’t make the qualifying round in Scotland and asked if I wanted to go south and play at Formby. I was happy to and it made for a good four hour drive back afterwards.”

Eckford also has form at Gleneagles having won the Scottish PGA Fourball Championship there nine years ago and played in a pro-am event on the Kings Course there this year,

“I think we’re both going to feel at home there in the final,” said Eckford, who has been the head pro at Ranfurly Castle for 21 years.

Glaswegian Stewart has recently rekindled his enthusiasm for the game and only joined the club two years ago.

“I played as a junior and then took a break for maybe 10 years to start a family,” said the 20-handicapper.

“But I joined Ranfurly Castle and now we’ve made the final, it was a beautiful day all round.”

The pair started well and were five under par after four holes at the Merseyside venue.

But Eckford, who will be playing in his first final, refused to get carried away with thoughts of victory.

“I know this venue well, and I’ll be back here next week to play it again,” he said.

“I’m too long in the tooth for writing victory speeches early on. I knew the pitfalls at Formb but David went off like an express train and never stopped.”

Paul Dickenson, of Houghwood Golf Club in St Helens, made a hole in one at the fifth hole. He finished in sixth spot with amateur partner Paul Hamer.