Trevor's ton up day ushers in victory

Trevor Pigram admitted he had a hundred reasons to think he and Cottesmore Golf Club professional  Calum Callan could reach the SkyCaddie PGA Pro-Captain Challenge final.

The pairing won the South B qualifying event held at Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club after a thrilling finish which saw a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard.

Pigram, aged 45, and Callan carded a seven under par round at the Richmond venue on their way to a total of 43 points. That put them level with Graham Laing and Alan Blake, of North Wilts Golf Club, and Richard Beadles and Chris Bartram of Royal Worlington & Newmarket Golf Club.

But the Cottesmore duo recorded the lowest score of 32 on the last nine to land a place in the final which will be held in Morocco.

They have had plenty of experience of playing alongside one another this year, including  a 100-hole marathon for charity in June at the Sussex club.

“I decided at the start of the year I’d do 100 holes in one day for the Royal Marsden cancer charity, it was a personal challenge,” said Horley-based Pigram, who has been a member at Cottesmore for 19 years and works as an IT service manager.

“The idea was to get six or seven guys from the golf club to come out and join me at different points during the day. I mentioned it to Calum and he said he’d do it. I asked him ‘how many loops?’ as I was doing loops of 10 holes - and he said he’d do the lot!

“In the end it was Calum, myself and a friend of mine at the club, and the three of us did 100 holes. It was an amazing experience and we raised around £2,500 as a result. We started at 4.30am and finished at 7pm - 14 and a half hours. And we absolutely loved it, other people joined us along the way.

“So we were used to each other after that, it helped us to gel. And we also played in the PGA National Pro-Am regional final at Walton Heath.”

They will now play in the the £22,000 final, in association with Golfplan, which will be played between November 21-22 at Mazagan Beach Resort, Casablanca.

“It’ll be a fitting way to end my captain’s year, which ends the first week in December, particularly after the support Calum’s given me at the club,” added 10 handicapper Pigram, who was playing off 13 at the start of the year, and is one of the club’s youngest captains.

“We didn’t think our score would be good enough, and then we didn’t think our score on the last nine holes would win it, but it did,” said Callan.

“But Trevor’s been very steady and plays better away from home rather than at Cottesmore where he has things to do. It’s rare thing for a player to improve in his captain’s year. But he’s a wise man… he had couple of lessons off me at the start of the season!”