Three-time British Seniors Open qualifier Garry Lacy needed all his big-time experience to cope with the glassy greens and tough pins at Ashton & Lea, winning the Lancashire Seniors for the first time by four shots.
The Ashton-in-Makerfield GC manager made it through qualifying in 2016, 18 and 2019 to play in Europe’s biggest seniors event and will hope to do it again this year when Sunningdale hosts some of the biggest legends in golf.
While the greens at Sunningdale won’t be slow it is hard to imagine they will be any quicker than the ones he won on earlier this week. Rounds of 70 and 74 gave him a two over par total.
The new champion said: “A friend of mine was walking with me on back nine nine on day one and I asked him to nip across and have a look at scoreboard to see if anyone had broken 80.
“He came back and said 78 was the best score. It was just so tough. The pins were difficult and the greens were like formica.
“A few days earlier I managed to get over there and peg it up at 5am. It was a good job I did get to have a look because you needed to know where to miss.”
Hesketh course record falls to a seven-handicapper who had never broken par before
The 57-year-old was a picture of consistency on day one. Two birdies and one bogey gave him a two-shot halfway lead over Hillside’s Ron Godley. An excellent birdie on the stroke index one fourth was the undoubted highlight. He got a hybrid to 12 feet before holing out. Another birdie at the short 13th where he pitched to three feet was followed by a bogey at 15 and he parred in for a one under par round.
On day two Garry started with four bogeys in his first seven holes but with his nearest challengers also struggling, he was never headed.
He added: “I played poorly and just never got engaged with with the round. After the seventh I just tried to reset and start again. From eight onwards I played relatively solidly.”
There would be no more bogeys for the Ashton-in-Makerfield player and one birdie, again on the 13th and again he pitched to the spot he found 24 hours earlier before again holing out.
Garry also won the 55-59 years category while the other agegroup winners were:
• 60-64: Tom Holt (Clitheroe)
• 65-69: Ron Godley (Royal Lytham)
70 plus: Michael Gray (Lancaster)