Tinworth returns in style

Kent’s Richard Tinworth, right, returned to competitive golf in style to qualify for the Golfbreaks.com PGA Fourball Championship final.

Tinworth teamed up with David Copsey (DCGS Poult Wood) to finish joint top of the leaderboard in the SkyCaddie and BMW supported event held at Woodcote Park Golf Club in Surrey.

They recorded a seven under par round of 65 in a three-way tie for the lead with Paul Elvin and Matthew Barber of Orpington’s Chelsfield Lakes Golf Centre and former champions Mark Treleaven (Hayling Golf Club) and Jonathan Barnes  (Lee-on-The-Solent Golf Club).

The three joint winners will join seven other qualifiers for the £33,000 final which takes place on the Jack Nicklaus designed course at Carden Park in Cheshire between August 17-19.

And for Tonbridge-based Tinworth, it was a particularly satisfying result as he has been out of the game for almost 16 years.

“I work as a golf agent while still keeping my professional status,” he said.

“My job means I haven’t had the time to play any PGA events since around 2000. I’ve played socially but this year I’ve returned as I want to play seniors golf now that I’m approaching 50.

“So it’s all going to plan at the moment. It’ll be interesting to see how we do at Carden Park now and I cannot wait for the final.”

Tinworth is a former European Tour player and any fears that he might have been rusty going into the qualifier were quickly dispelled.

“What happened was that playing golf suddenly wasn’t my main source of income but I want to play more now,” he said.

“I’ve known David for years, we’ve been mates a long time and he is based at Tonbridge too so he’s really only about five minutes from me.”

Tinworth admitted that the qualifying event was so close it left no room for error.

“It was a tough day in the hot sun and it was difficult to concentrate at times but we did it,” he said.

“There were only two shots between all of the 10 qualifiers in the end so we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. We missed out on a birdie at the 18th hole which is probably the easiest on the course, but we still got through.”