Bill aiming to fly high again

Globetrotting Bill Aitchison will be hoping to book himself a trip to Morocco when he plays in the SkyCaddie PGA Pro-Captain Challenge qualifying event at Rudding Park Golf Club.

The Tyneside Golf Club captain completed his own ‘grand slam’ of majors when he attended the US PGA tournament at Quail Hollow.

And 24 hours after landing back in the UK, he was out on the golf course with his club’s PGA professional Gary Vickers.

Nine handicapper Aitchison will be hoping Vickers can repeat his feat of three years ago when he made it to the final of this competition when it was held in Turkey.

The pair will tee off at the Harrogate venue on August 30 and will be hoping to reach the £22,000 final, in association with Golfplan, which will be held between November 21-22 at Mazagan Beach Resort, Casablanca.

“Gary is as good a professional as we could’ve possibly hoped for at Tyneside, I play a lot of golf with Gary and he’s a great guy. Plus he’s reached this final before. We’re used to each other’s game - he knows how badly I can hit it at times!” said Aitchison who admitted he had to shake off his jet lag to play alongside Vickers after the USPGA.

“That’s the Grand Slam done for me now, I’ve been to the Masters a couple of times and the US Open and our Open many times. The USPGA was the last one on the list. It was the one I wanted to tick off to say I’ve done them all.

“I should have had five games over there, but it rained. Then it was back here on the Tuesday afternoon and playing the next day. I wasn’t in the best condition but I managed to thrown in a couple of birdies.”

Aitchison, aged 63 and a consultant for Scottish Water, hopes the fact that he is no stranger to playing with Vickers will help them at Rudding Park.

“He sorts me out from time to time, if I’m on my game then we have a chance, if not, it’ll all be down to Gary!” he smiled.