Published: Monday, 12th September 2011

Father and son duo Leonard and Lee Owens have booked themselves a place in the final of the TGI Golf Nike Oven 4Ball Championship at The Colonial after teaming up to win the Irish national qualifying event at Headfort Golf Club.

Both members of TGI Golf – Europe’s leading buying group for golf professionals – Lee and his father, Leonard will now join four other TGI members on an all expenses-paid trip to Texas, USA, where they will contest the final at the world-famous Colonial Country Club, and receive a guided tour of Nike Golf’s high-tech research and development facility, The Oven, in Fort Worth, in October.

TGI Golf’s partnership with Nike to stage this event exclusively for its members sees PGA Professionals pair up and contest three national qualifiers – in England, Scotland and Ireland – with the winners of each event going through to the final held in the sumptuous surroundings of the Colonial.

Eddie Reid, TGI Golf Managing Director, said: “We are extremely grateful to Nike Golf for investing so much in our partnership and offering such a thrilling experience to TGI Golf members.

“The Nike Oven 4Ball Championship gives our members an amazing opportunity to play one of the world’s greatest golf courses and witness the depth of research that Nike Golf puts into its development of new equipment at The Oven.”

Former European Tour Professional Leonard, 62 – Head PGA Professional at Royal Dublin – and 30-year-old Lee (Killiney Golf Club) narrowly saw off Peter Hanna (Lurgen) and Paul Stevenson (Portadown) by just a single Stableford point in the Irish qualifying event

Lee said: “We played in the competition last year as a bit of fun and ended up level par. We were planning to do the same again this year – have a bit of father/son time – but we were drawn with Robert Giles (Greenore) and Brendan McGovern (Headfort) who were last year’s overall champions and it sparked our competitive spirit.”

That spirit shone through as the Owens racked up a score of 41 points to top the leaderboard, with the defending champions not too far behind on 39 sharing joint third place with Michael O’Shea (Callan) and Jimmy Bolger (Kilkenny).

“It was nice for Lee to give me permission to team up with him,” joked Leonard. “When he was growing up he would wish he could play with me, now it’s the other way round!”

Leonard, who has played in three Open Championships, looks back fondly on the days when Lee was a youngster, swinging a club for the first time.

He said: “Lee used to come along to Royal Dublin with me when he was young and would sit quietly in the background while I gave lessons. He was lucky enough to become a junior member, and I remember when he was about 10 years old we had to go out at the end of the day with torches to try and find him as he’d still be out on the course.”

The Owens will be joined in Texas by the Scottish pairing of Jonathan Porteous (Craigielaw) and Mark Patchett (Broomieknowe) who won an exceptionally tight Scottish event at Blairgowrie on countback after scoring 43 points along with Richard Fyvie (Pumpherston) and Alastair McLean (Duddingston).

The English qualifying event saw a record score posted from winners Simon Eaton (Nelson) and Paul Walker (Knott End) at Kibworth Castle, as they carded the lowest ever score in the TGI Golf Nike Oven 4Ball Championship – 9-under-par.

Phil Fox, Nike Golf Category Sales Manager for Hardware and Equipment, said: “The TGI Golf membership shows great support for this event every year – last year’s winners were desperate to get to the final again, which goes to show just how good the prize on offer is.

“I’d like to thank all the TGI members who took part, and the management for helping us to stage this event once again. We have seen our business grow by 28% with TGI Golf over the past 12 months, mainly down to the commitment by both parties to work together in brining the best opportunities to the membership.”

Eddie Reid added: “Congratulations to the six TGI Golf members heading out to Texas. They played some superb golf to book their places and I know they are all extremely excited about the trip – and rightly so as Nike will give them all a truly memorable experience.”

The six TGI Golf members will be flown out to Texas to compete in the grand final from October 15-19.

For further information visit www.tgigolf.com.

ENDS

Press release issued on behalf of TGI Golf by Landmark Media International Ltd

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Matthew Millard
Landmark Media International Ltd
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Email: matt@landmark-media.com
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