Adrian Ambler's hot streak of form continues to match the summer heatwave after he and partner Aran Wainwright were among the leading qualifiers at Woodsome Hall.
The Walton Golf Centre pro, with two recent pro-am wins under his belt including an eight under course record at Kirby Lonsdale, combined with Oulton Hall's Wainwright to fire a six-under-par 64 in the North Region qualifier for the Skycaddie Fourball PGA Championship, supported by Sunderland.
The pair tied with Paul Grannell (Vale Royal Abbey) and Gareth Jones (Sandiway) and Bondhay duo Matthew Swindell and Michael Ramsden to head 10 other qualifiers booking a place in the 54-hole championship final at Lincolnshire's Forest Pines. (October 7-9).
Ambler and Wainwright have already teamed up to impressive effect this season, winning the Yorkshire PGA Fourball in March and reaching the quarter finals of the Sunningdale Foursomes, and secured another tilt at earning some fourball success with a late flurry of birdies.
"It was very warm that's for sure but Aran birdied the last three holes and I chipped in with a few birdies to see us home," said Ambler. "We played steady, not spectacular."
"Fourball is something a little bit different, it's serious but fun too and we had some fun together. I've known Aran getting on for 15-20 years.
He didn't start playing golf till he was 15 but was English Amateur champion within a few years and got to the final of the British Amateur.
"I've had a reasonable season and I'm on quite a good run with wins at Kirby Lonsdale with a course record and Bradford pro-ams."
An added bonus for Wainwright ahead of October's final will be the arrival of a little cheerleader with his wife expecting a baby in September.
Meanwhile Grannell, who just missed out on winning a card on the Asian Tour earlier in the year, was dubbed a birdie machine by his partner who believes their different styles make them a formidable pairing.
"Our games suit this format perfectly," said Jones.
"Paul's a bit of a birdie machine and I'm pretty steady. There's no point in both being birdie machines, you need the combination because there are holes when you're going to need pars and vice versa."
"We know each others strengths and weaknesses and we're looking forward to the final," added Grannell.
Also reaching the £30,000 final will be James Goodhall (Avro GC) and Daniel Haughian (Adlington Golf Centre), Andrew Stevenson (Mersey Valley) and Andrew Turner (Knaresborough), Jonathan Greenwood and Jonathan Lupton (Close House Country Club) who tied fourth at five under after 65s.
Qualifying is a share of seventh at four under are Woodsome Hall pairing John Eyre and David Astin, Mark Bradley (Chorley) and Paul Walker (Knott End), Stephen Nicholls (Rossendale) and James Webster (Lee Valley) and Graham Cox (Davenport) and Anthony Millar (Cheadle).
Meanwhile Bradley Park's Tom Wild and Chris Foster came through an eight team play-off to clinch one of three remaining places along with James Wright (Myerscough) and Richard Challoner (Chilli Dip Golf Academy) and Mark Hancock (Stand) and David Smith (Swinton).
02 July, 2009