During his emotional 2023 victory, Edwards spoke of his wife’s battle with leukaemia, which he had not previously shared publicly. He continued: “David Wright, who’s in charge of The PGA’s Benevolent Fund rang me up afterwards and he actually came down to see me, just to check if there was anything that The PGA could do, which was amazing - it just gives you that feeling that The PGA aren't just an organisation where we play in tournaments, they actually look after you for a lot of other things.”
Edwards preparing to defend Senior PGA Professional Championship title after heartwarming year
14/05/2024
The Senior PGA Professional Championship hosts the largest field in the PGA National Tournament Calendar, with almost 300 PGA Professionals set to take on Moor Park Golf Club from 15-17 May.
Defending champion, Rob Edwards (Romsey Golf Club) is going into the week in high spirits after a truly special and heartwarming year.
After winning the 2023 Senior PGA Professional Championship, Edwards was inundated with messages of congratulations, support and even gifts from friends and fellow professionals:
“The biggest thing for me out of winning last year's event, was that I had over 700 messages on social media - which I do not use a lot, I have to tell you - but loads of lads who I've known for years, all very kind, sent some great messages. Then I had one lad who rang me from America, another rang me from Switzerland. It was awesome.
“And the most amazing thing was, we've got a member of my club who is an artist - Alan Wilson. He does paintings and he painted my portrait with me holding the cup. I couldn't believe it. He’s 77 and it took him 100 hours to paint this picture. I was absolutely dumbfounded. I said to him, unless you're royalty or famous, you don't have portraits painted! So I had an amazing year. It just made all the practice and all the things I've done over the years, it just made it worthwhile to be honest. It was lovely.”
To top off such an action-packed twelve months, Edwards was recently recognised by the PGA of Hampshire: “They give out an Achievement Award every year. We had loads of success in Hampshire last year - Emma Allen won the WPGA Series and Lewis Scott won the PGA Assistants’ Championship and the Inter-County Championship with Ryan Moody. But a few weeks ago they decided to do the presentation for the Achievement Award, we sat at dinner and one of the senior pros started speaking and I turned around and he started nodding at me. You could have knocked me over with a feather!
“They said it was unanimous. The committee said I led the way. I took the award and said, I think we should share it - everyone deserved it. But, things like that have been amazing. I've had a great year.”
In addition to winning the title, Edwards snapped up one of the coveted spots available at the Legends Tour’s Staysure PGA Seniors Championship, held at Trump International Golf Links in Scotland. The top 15 placed PGA Professionals in the Senior PGA Professional Championship qualify for the tournament, alongside the top two players from each of the Q-Series events, which will be held this year at Royal Ascot Golf Club (28-29 May) and Rockliffe Hall (24-25 June).
Edwards thoroughly enjoyed the experience, with 2023 being the third year in a row that he qualified for the event: “The cherry on the cake is a qualification to get into the Staysure event. The Trump course is absolutely phenomenal. A good friend of mine who's a Ryder Cup golfer said to me, it would be in my top five all-time courses. He's played at The Masters, The Open, he's played everywhere, so, for him to say it will be in your top five courses of all time, I went there with a huge expectation and I wasn't disappointed!”
Going into the 2024 Senior PGA Professional Championship, Edwards is keen to defend his title: “I've got two mindsets, if I'm being honest. One says I've done it, so I've got no pressure on me. But number two is that little voice in my head that says, well, why can't you do it again then? It would be nice to defend it, obviously. I'm going to turn up trying to be competitive and what happens, happens. I’ve had a great year and let's try and repeat it - that would be something quite special if I managed to do that.”
The 2024 edition of the tournament heads to Moor Park Golf Club, where the players will take on both the High Course and the West Course.
All players will take on both Harry Colt designed courses during days one and two, with those who make the cut taking on the High Course in the final round.
Find out more about the Senior PGA Professional Championship and follow the scoring from Moor Park HERE.
