Published: Tuesday, 30th August 2011

Father and son duo Leonard and Lee Owens have booked themselves an all-expenses paid trip to the US after winning the Irish Nike Oven 4Ball Championship event at Headfort Golf Club.

Former European Tour Professional Leonard (Royal Dublin) and his 30-year-old son Lee (Killiney) saw off Peter Hanna (Lurgen) and Paul Stevenson (Portadown) by just a single Stableford point to book their place in the grand final to be played over the world-famous Colonial Country Club, Texas, in October.

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 points in 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, 62. “When he was growing up he would wish he could play with me, now it’s the other way round!

“We played very well as a team and both came alive on the back nine – Lee had birdies on 10 and 11 while I had a couple of 16 and 17 to put us in the driving seat.”

Neither father or son have experienced The Colonial Country Club before and are extremely excited about teeing up on the famous course.

“A few of my members have played there and a number of others who have played USPGA Championship venues before, so it is nice to be able to play one myself so I can join in the conversations,” added Lee.

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 final qualifying event was held at Kibworth Castle and was won by Simon Eaton (Nelson) and Paul Walker (Knott End) who scored the highest qualifying total of 45 points.

The six TGI Golf members will be flown out to Texas to compete in the grand final from October 15-19, where they will not only play the Colonial Country Club but also experience Nike Golf’s global research and development facility – The Oven – in Fort Worth.

You can view the 2011 Nike Oven Results here