Strathmore Golf Centre plays host to this year's PGA Fourball Championship as 72 teams head to Perthshire. The Championship dates back to 1984 when Denis Durnian and Derrick Cooper shared the first title and it has been an ever-present fixture on the calendar for the past 20 years.
Last year after 54 holes of betterball strokeplay, Hadley Wood's Jack Frances and Highgate's Oliver Chesterman ran out two-shot winners over four pairings which included Paul Hendriksen and James Ruth.
The winners would put together rounds of 64-63-65 to secure the prize pot of £5,500. Here they look back on how their victory came about.
JF - Jack Frances
OC - Oliver Chesterman
How did your partnership come about?
JF: Ollie and I have known each other since the days when I was an assistant at Highgate, he would have been 14 and I was 17 so that was a good 14 years ago. He then started his PGA training five years ago and we've remained friends and we play quite a bit of golf socially so it's a friendship more than a partnership, really.
OC: We've tried to qualify a few times and we've made it through to Carden Park twice and missed out by a shot the other year. We shot 11-under in the East qualifier at Crews Hill and we had such a fun time doing it so we obviously had a lot of momentum going into the finals.
How would you describe each other's games?
OC: Jack drives it really well so he will always go first and that helped to free me up. He would always put us in play and that gave me a better idea of what I was going to do with it. At Carden Park you have to drive it well and, if you can do that, then you can score quite nicely.
JF: Ollie's the player of the group, he's got a great short game and putts very well and he was Mr Back 9 last year. He had an eagle and lots of birdies and I was there as a bit of moral support really. He's more conservative than me and a lot of my role was to hit driver or 3-wood to put us down there and to let him play the way that he wants to.
Being good friends, how helpful is that in keeping moving things forward in this type of format?
JF: We obviously knew how well we were doing but we sort of just kept each other going and we always wanted to do a bit more. I can get a bit down on myself and then Ollie just turns up. We always seemed to struggle a bit over the first half a dozen holes, it's quite tight and it was playing firm last year, and then we got a birdie under our belt and then we were off and running.
OC: On the back nine we were 17-under of the 24 total. We had a bit of an individual game, like most birdies, and I actually think it's better when you're playing an event to have a side bet as you're having a laugh and you're almost more focused on nicking a few quid off your mate as opposed to playing well in the event. And then hopefully at the end you've done both.
JF: When Ollie made his second eagle of the day I asked if he wanted his tenner now or later?
What do you know of this year's venue, Strathmore?
JF: I've got friends of my family about 20 minutes away and he's given me a little bit of an insight into what the course is like. But we won't know what it will look like until we get there on the Monday morning.
OC: I've not played it before but it will be great to pitch ourselves against some of the best players in the country as well. There are some great players in the field and you get to take them on with one of your best mates.
