Hot Putter Does the Trick for Lovelace

Alan Lovelace had his red-hot putter to thank for a superb seven under par 65 at Farnham yesterday (Monday 8 May) which led the qualifiers from the South Region into the finals of the Glenmuir PGA Club Professional Championship.

The 41-year-old Lovelace, who teaches students on the golf studies course at Guildford's Merrist Wood College, rattled in eight birdie putts - and even surprised himself.

Now Lovelace, along with the other qualifiers from the South Region, goes forward to the 72 hole finals at Princes, Kent, from 13 - 16 June where the winner will pocket £10,000 from the £78,000 prize fund, have the use of a top of the range Peugeot car for a year and virtually guarantee himself a place in next year's Great Britain and Ireland PGA Cup team to travel to the United States.

"To be honest I didn't hit the ball that well but I just holed every putt I had," said Lovelace, who will be appearing in his first Glenmuir final. "It was one of those days and I wish I had a video of it to show the students!"

After the postponement of the original qualifier at Tandridge last month due to a freak snowfall, torrential rain threatened the re-arranged event with play eventually getting underway after a delay of some three and a half hours.

"I'm very local to Farnham so it wasn't so much of a problem to me," added Lovelace. "I didn't have to hang around and to be fair, when we did get out the course was in great condition, it had drained superbly."

After a birdie at the opening hole Lovelace dropped his only shot of the day at the third, but then picked up shots at the fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth holes to get to five under.

The back nine was par golf until he bagged two more birdies in the final three holes.

Paul Creamer was Lovelace's nearest challengers with a four under 68 while Craig Cowper, Lea Cooper and Christopher Evans all returned cards of 69, three under.

For ex-European Tour and Challenge Tour player Cowper, from the World of Golf centre at New Malden, it was a case of taking advantage of a twist of fate.

When the qualifier was originally scheduled at Tandridge he was playing in a pro-am at Sawgrass in Florida. The postponement allowed him the chance to enter and he seized the opportunity to reach his second Glenmuir final.