Teenage amateur helps Thompson seal Parkstone’s fourth final

Young golf prospect Paul Rickard teamed up with Parkstone Professional Martyn Thompson as the club clinched its third successive Lombard Trophy final.

And it will be Thompson’s fourth appearance in the showpiece event after winning 11 years ago in San Lorenzo, Portugal.

This time, the Dorset duo combined to book their place at Gleneagles - which will see Thompson return to last year’s venue.

They led from the start in the regional final, held on home territory at Parkstone Golf Club.

The pair carded an impressive eight-under-par round of 63 which was never under serious threat as they won by two shots.

They will now play in the £43,600 final over the King’s Course at Gleneagles between September 2-3 - just three weeks before the Ryder Cup is held at the same venue.

And for Rickard, 18 (pictured left), who plays off a handicap of 10, the event comes just three years after taking up the sport.

“Parkstone were looking for junior players so, as I only live five minutes away, I joined up and worked hard at my game,” he said. “This is a reward for that”.

“I work in the club shop and I’m doing a PGA retail apprenticeship. I’d like to do the PGA training course and turn professional one day.

“But this was a great win, Martyn was on form and we just clicked. It was also good to keep up the club’s record in this competition. Now I can’t wait to play at Gleneagles.”

Thompson (right) admits he went into the National Pro-Am event with high expectations and some pressure to deliver.

“The club are very proud of what I’ve done in the Lombard Trophy,” he said.

“And I think the expectation was that I would qualify again, particularly with it being held at our home course.

“Some players become very familiar with certain competitions and the Lombard Trophy is priority for me every year because of our history in the event.

“But you still have to go and play well.

“And at 7.15am I was still working on my putting action. I’d tried something new and it hadn’t been working, but I made a last minute decision to change it and it came off.

“We got a birdie at the first hole and we were off and running.

“I felt eight-under was good enough, but we had a four-hour wait to find out if we’d won - Paul said that was actually worse than playing!”