Goodwin puts plans in place as he prepares for final bid

Craig Goodwin has made sure nothing will stand in his way if he makes it to the Golfbreaks.com PGA Fourball Championship final again.

Last year he qualified for the event at Carden Park in Cheshire, only to be forced to pull out as his Assistant playing partner had to sit PGA exams.

This time Goodwin, of Banffshire’s Strathlene Golf Club, has teamed up with a player who has already confirmed he will be free if the duo make it to this year’s £32,250 final which will be held at Whittlebury Park Golf Club in Northamptonshire between August 16-18.

Goodwin will play alongside Sam Griffiths, of Dunes Golf Centre in Fraserburgh, for the qualifying event which takes place on May 30 at Edinburgh’s Musselburgh Golf Club.

And he is determined to make through again this time after the pure frustration of last year.

“I was looking forward to playing the final as it was at Carden Park and I really wanted to play there,” he said.

“So I have made it to one final already - I just couldn’t take part in it because my playing partner was an assistant pro and he had to take exams.

“It was a crazy thing, I was meant to play the qualifying round with my old boss, then he had to pull out because of a family emergency, so 24 hours before the event I was trying to find a new partner.

“I did that at the last minute but then found he couldn’t make the final.

“You have to play the event with the person you qualified with or do it on your own. There was no way I was going to do that knowing the kind of scores you have to get just to make the cut.

“So I pulled out of what would've been my first PGA Fourball final.

“But I’ve checked with Sam - he’s also an assistant and he’s already made sure he can play on the dates of the final. I didn’t want the same thing to happen again but it’s fine, it won’t be a problem, all we have to do is make sure we qualify.

“I’ve played a lot of golf with Sam and we became really good friends.”

Last year, Goodwin came through a tricky qualifying round at Musselburgh.

“It’s a really good course, there are chances there to be taken, you have to make birdies at the par fives if you want to get a decent score,” he added.

“Some of the par fours are really tough, it was soaking wet last year, but we still qualified and hopefully we can get through again. You both need a good day, one person can’ carry you through.”

Other teams from Scotland due to play at Musselburgh include the host pairing of Norman Huguet and Cameron Marr (Musselburgh Golf Club); Graeme Brown (Montrose Golf Links Ltd.) and Gareth Wright (West Linton Golf Club); Stewart Savage (Dalmuir Golf Club) and Craig Everett; James Erskine (Dumfries & County Golf Club) and Chris Campbell (Taymouth Castle Estate) and Jason McCreadie (Largs Golf Club) and Craig Ronald (Carluke Golf Club).