Wiltshire duo aiming to build for the future

Dan Carter hopes his tried and tested golfing partnership with Barry Forster will produce even better results in this year’s golfbreaks.com PGA Fourball Championship.

Upavon Golf club Professional Carter and Forster, of North Wilts Golf Club, finished fourth in last year’s final - their best display in the competition.

And Carter believes the Wiltshire pairing is improving all the team after making this tournament one of their highlights of the calendar.

They will be hoping to qualify once more when they tee off in the South West qualifying event to be held at Mendip Spring Golf Club near Bristol.

Carter and Forster are aiming to book their place in the BMW-supported final which will be held at Belton Woods Golf Club in Lincolnshire between August 29-31.

“Myself and Barry have played together since we were juniors, and ever since we turned professional, we’ve always played the PGA Fourball Championship,” said Carter.

“But we’re also best mates off the course, we were best man at each other’s wedding.”

And Carter says the duo hope to use that connection to make an even bigger impact on the event.

“We finished fourth overall last year which was our best result in the final,” he said.

“I think we must have played the competition six or seven times now, we haven’t always reached the final but it must be four or five times that we’ve got there.

“We’ve always done pretty well, we’re steady golfers and we know each other’s game, we always seem to gel.

“There’s a good friendship there which suits the fourball format. We’ve definitely got better every year, so we’re hopeful this time. It’s one of those events we want to do well in.

“We always look forward to this competition, it’s one of our favourites in the year.

“Golf’s such an individual game that it’s one of the few opportunities we get to get together as a team and that’s why we enjoy it.

“We’d be disappointed not to get to the final, neither myself nor Barry have played at Mendip so we’ve had a practice round just to have a look at the course. But there’s a lot of good players in the region and I suspect there’ll be a lot of good pairings here too.”

Other teams from the West and Wales due to play at Mendip Spring include host pairing Scott Thompson and Will Hobbs; Richard Bentham (Hensol Golf Aacademy) and Joe Gibbs (Celtic Manor Resort); Adam Constable and Chris O’Neill (Cardiff Golf Club); Chris Gill and Richard Sadler (Newquay Golf Club) and Jonathan Rattenbury and Ashley Moon (Okehampton Golf Club).

For more information on the event at Mendip Spring click here.