Ashbourne golfer driving for Glenmuir PGA success

Ashbourne Golf Club professional and former champion John Dwyer's focus will be firmly back on golf this year as he prepares for the Glenmuir PGA Professional Championship at Oxfordshire next week from Tuesday 10th August. A year ago, Dwyer had to withdraw from the event at Dundonald Links because of the birth of his son Conor, but now the three-time PGA Cup player is back and hoping to relive the glory days of 2007 when he won the tournament at Royal Porthcawl. "The Glenmuir is the flagship PGA tournament and it's certainly the event that I build my whole year round," he said. Last year I had to withdraw from the event due to Conor's birth, he was born the day before the tournament, but it's been a good event to me and I'm still very proud that my name is on the trophy and always will be." The 72-hole event, which is supported by Peugeot and MPI Financial Services, will see some of the UK and Ireland's best PGA professionals battle it out for a share of the £90,000 prize fund. Dwyer hasn't had time to fly over for a practice round so has been busy studying The Oxfordshire on the internet and is raring to go. "I've never played The Oxfordshire before, but I've had a look at it on the internet and you can see it's a very modern, American-style course," he added. I'm sure the course will be very impressive and I'll be using the pro-am beforehand as my practice round. Other Irish contenders include David Mortimer (Fore Ireland) and Donal Gleeson (Old Conna) who tied for the top spot in the Ireland Region qualifier at The Heritage. In-form Robert Giles (Greenore), runner-up at the English PGA Championship at Golf At Goodwood last week, is also in the field as is Paul Stevenson (Portadown) while defending champion is Caerphilly's James Lee. An added incentive for the top 10 finishers is that points gained will count towards selection for next year's Great Britain & Ireland PGA Cup team to face the United States at CordeValle in Northern California.