Teacher Matt gets top marks at The K Club
13/07/2015
Belfast schoolteacher Matt Lavery will be taking a break from the classroom after reaching the Lombard Trophy final at Gleneagles.
Lavery, left, teamed up with Portadown Golf Club professional Paul Stevenson for the regional qualifying event at The K Club.
And the Northern Ireland duo came out on top in a tight contest to beat John Dignam and Brendan Keenan, of Slade Valley Golf Club in Co Dublin, by just one shot after carding a seven-under-par round of 65.
The Portadown pairing will now play in the £80,000 final over the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles between September 1-2.
But eight-handicapper Lavery, aged 28, admitted he may have to do some persuading at work to play at Scotland’s famous Ryder Cup venue.
“I’m a teacher at the Belfast Royal Academy,” he said. “I only interviewed for the job in June and the final is in term time so I might have to do a bit of begging now!
“But I’m really looking forward to playing at Gleneagles, that’s a great prize, especially after The K Club.”
Lavery, from Portadown, has only recently returned to golf after a six year break.
“I was playing up until I was 21 then I played more football with the Ambassadors club,” he said.
“But I was getting injured a lot and came back to golf. It’s good that I did after winning here with Paul.”
Lavery explained that the result hinged on a late birdie for himself and Stevenson.
“We bogeyed the 17th hole, which was the first time we’d done that all day,” he said.
“It meant we had to birdie the 18th hole or we would’ve lost on countback and Paul was able to do that.”
This will be Stevenson’s second final as he got there in 2001 when the event was held in San Lorenzo in Portugal.
“When you’ve reached it once, you want to do it again so this is great,” he said.
“I always try to do well in this event because Lombard are such great supporters of The PGA.”
Stevenson has been the head pro at Portadown since he was 20 and also represented the club at his previous final appearance.
“I’ve played at Gleneagles before, about four years ago, and I’m really looking forward to going back,” he said.
“Myself and Matt dovetailed really well, it worked out perfectly even if it was close at the end.”
