St. John and Foley clinch spot in Fourball final

Ian St. John (left) and David Foley (right) qualified for the Golfbreaks.com PGA Fourball Championship after claiming a joint victory in a hotly contested Irish qualifier.

St. John, of Carrick-on-Suir Golf Club, and Dromoland Castle’s Foley tied at the top of the leaderboard at Headfort, along with last year’s finalists Emmet Staunton and Roderick Park.

They will be joined by two other Irish pairs in the BMW-supported final at Forest Pines Hotel and Golf Club in Lincolnshire between October 2-4, where they will compete for a share of the £28,750 prize fund.

Both duos impressed over the Co. Meath course with five-under-par rounds of 67. Two birdies on the back nine pulled St. John and Foley level at the top after they suffered bogeys at the seventh and 10^th.

St. John admitted the pair were confident they could qualify after a strong start to their round.

He said: “We started to believe we could do it when we managed to get five-under after five holes.

“We had a couple of bogeys in the middle of our round but because of our good start we got away with it – then we got a couple of birdies towards the end which really helped.”

Foley was equally delighted to have claimed a place in the final.

“We came to do a job, and we are thrilled we managed to complete it,” he said.

“We had a couple of blips, and the course is really tough, but we are glad to have come through, we’re excited about the final now.”

The other two qualifiers at Headfort could not be separated, each carding three birdies on the back nine on their way to three-under-par rounds of 69.

They were Ryan Madigan and Leo Hynes (Killiney), and Matthew and Adam Dunmore (Bundoran).