Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles

On the way to Gleneagles, I went to Bywell shooting range for a lesson in clay pigeon shooting. I had a fantastic time and it is all I have talked about since, so much so I went again yesterday to relax after the charity day on Monday. I think I have found a new hobby to distract me over the winter.

I played the afternoon Pro-Am with one of the Diageo teams, we had a good afternoon but sadly didn't compete for any of the prizes. I was back out early on Thursday morning with Graeme MacDowell and David Lynn. The weather was surprisingly pleasant, I struggled on the bumpy greens and had three horse-shoes on route to a round of 76(+3) which was very disappointing after being one under through nine, I have to say I was surprised to see the scoring so low. Friday I got off to a solid start and felt as though I could make a move especially as I was playing the course the correct way around. I was one under through nine again and dropped my only shot of the day on the thirteenth, I followed this with birdies at fifteen and sixteen and holed a good putt for par on the last to shoot a round of 71(-2) Unfortunately I came up one shot short of making the cut and made my way home on Friday night.

I spent the weekend making final preparations for my charity day. My caddie Dave Kenny who is a pro came down from Glasgow on Sunday to play. We spent the afternoon watching the golf on tv as Dave was the assistant at Marc Warren's club when he was a boy, we were both pleased to see him win.

We were lucky to have a good day with sunny weather on Monday for the first Ferrie Foundation charity day. Much to our relief everyone arrived early and had a thoroughly enjoyable day. Each player received a goody bag upon registration and had the chance to win some great prizes, including a Hole-in-one car on the 10th provided by my sponsor VW Pulman Durham, unfortunately nobody won the silver beetle. After the golf everyone had a fantastic three course meal in the Terraces at Matfen Hall, followed by a speech from Graham Willis had us all holding our sides for half an hour, he is a lovely man and one of the funniest I know.

The auction was a fantastic success, with the signed 2006 Open Tiger Woods flag and the signed 2006 Masters Phil Mickelson flag being the star attractions. We concluded the evening with the prize presentation, Titleist 755 irons to each member of the winning team, which was Graham Willis team with a score of 12 under on a back 9 count. Runners up were the team of Andrew Keenan who each received a Titleist D2 driver and third was the Pyeroy team, who each won a Titleist tour bag. The winning Professional was David Clark with a 67, 5 under par. We are still calculating the amounts we raised but hope that Marie Curie Cancer Care and Make-A-Wish foundation will be able to make a difference to someone with the money raised. I would like to thank everyone who helped to make the day a success and hope they enjoyed the day as much as I did.

Team Results

Pro Results Individual

On Course Prizes