Motherwell golfer reaches national pro-am final

Jul 10 2008 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

A MOTHERWELL man has made it into the PGA National Pro-Am Championship final.

Michael Carrigan helped Scott Catlin, a pro at West Lothian club Greenburn, to a two-shot victory in the regional finals of the competition at Lanark on July 7.

The duo compiled an unbeatable nine-under-par score to earn an all-expenses-paid trip to the grand final at the Sirene Beach and Hotel Resort and Antalya Golf Club in Turkey.

A combination of nine birdies and nine pars did the job for the duo.

Four of them came in the opening five holes and set them on the road to victory.

Carrigan (39), a taxi driver who plays off a 15 handicap, said: “I didn’t know I’d qualified to play in the tournament until Scott called me about it. I just thought I’d won the monthly medal back in April, and thought nothing more of it.

“Now I’m feeling brilliant, as I’ve never won anything significant.

“I’d never played with Scott before this, but it worked out brilliantly. I played OK and when I did have a bad hole, Scott was there.”

The winning pair will compete against 15 other regional finalists during the five-day trip to the five-star hotel and resort, from November 30 to December 4.

The tournament, which attracts more than 100,000 entries, is now in its 24th year and finals have previously been held in Portugal, Spain, Grand Bahamas and Sardinia.