Wayne is a Sloan ranger in narrow Carton House win

Amateur Wayne Sloan (left) with professional playing partner Andrew Manson.

Edenmore Golf & Country Club’s decision to take part in the Lombard Trophy for the first time paid off in style when they won the Irish regional qualifying event to book a trip to Portugal.

Amateur Wayne Sloan partnered the Co Down club’s professional Andrew Manson and they won the event on countback to clinch their place in the Algarve final.

They carded a seven under par round of 65 at Carton House Golf but it was a tight contest and their back nine ensured they edged out Slade Valley Golf Club’s John Dignam and Brendan Keenen - with the Co Dublin duo losing out on countback.

One shot further back at the Co Kildare venue were Vivian Teague and Robert Treanor from Armagh’s Loughgall Golf Club

Edenmore will now head for the £41,000 National Pro-Am grand final taking place at the Vila Sol resort between September 21-22.

But Manson, head professional for 13 years, admitted the club only decided to make their debut in the competition this year.

“I’m not sure why we haven’t entered it before,’ he said.

“I think we just wanted to try and give some value to the members, and we certainly have done that!

“We hardly stopped smiling driving back home afterwards.

“It was close and it was a long wait to see if we’d won, but if anyone beat 65 they’d have deserved it.”

Lurgan-based Sloan, aged 40 is a manager at a forklift hire company and plays off a handicap of six.

“I’ve been playing at Edenmore for about 10 years but never been anywhere close to a final like this before,” he said.

“We had a few dodgy holes at the start but then it just all came good on the back nine and I tried to help it along the way.”

A nett eagle at the 11th hole helped boost their back nine score - but a birdie at the 18th hole proved crucial.

“All we wanted to do was to enjoy it, we started early for the drive down, had a coffee, then waited to see where we ended up,” said Sloan.

“The team we were playing were quite a way behind us and when we’d finished we thought we’d posted a really good score, so we knew we could be in with a chance of winning.”