Caerphilly amatuer Delfi Rees is heading to Turkey for the St James’s Place PGA National Pro-Am Championship Grand Final - a year after his daughter’s boyfriend qualified for the same event.
Construction manager Rees teamed up with Caerphilly Golf Club’s PGA professional Darran Clark to win the qualifying event at Cumberwell Park Golf Club near Bath.
Clark had won the previous year’s event at the same venue with Tom Williams, who is the partner of Rees’ daughter.
But for the family connection to continue, Clark would have to win the event again and qualify for two successive finals.
It was close at the end, but the Caerphilly duo won the event on count back ahead of Stephen Bazeley and Paul Wylie of Erlestoke Golf Club.
Clark and Rees will now play in the final to be held on the PGA Sultan course at Antalya Golf Club, on November 29-30.
But, the previous year’s final, delayed by Covid restrictions, takes place a week earlier at the same venue.
“There's a lot of members from Caerphilly coming out for the two events,” said Rees.
“I’m not sure how it’ll work with them being so close together. Maybe Darran will stay out there.
“We said before the event that it’d be good if I could make it to the final as well as Tom. But that would mean Darran winning the qualifying event again - the chances of back to back victories are quite slim.
“It was by no means certain, but he did it. Darran calls Tom my future son-in-law, but I tell him to calm down, we’re not quite there yet! They’ve been together for about two or three years.”
Seven handicapper Delfi said the two finals being so close together also makes it an unusual situation.
“Tom’s going out there, with me following the previous week to join Darran,” he explained.
“Whether Darran will stay over there, I’m not sure. But it was a great day for us.”
Delfi says that, while the victories happened at the same Wiltshire venue, the conditions were vastly different.
But Delfi ended up making the deciding putt.
“Last year Tom and Darran won in wet conditions, but this time the course was burnt after all the hot weather,” he said.
“They scored 45 points to win last year, but we got 46 this time - so I made sure Tom knows who the Alpha male is! But it was close on countback, I’d made a 25 foot putt on the 18th for a birdie and that turned out to be the one that won it as the other team missed a three-footer on the last.”
CLICK HERE to view a full list of scores from the St. James’s Place National Pro-Am Championship qualifier at Cumberwell Park.
