Newlands all set for Turkey sizzler
Karl O’Donnell (left) and Dermott Bradshaw (right). Picture courtesy Patrick Bolger/Getty Images
Newlands Golf Club captain Dermott Bradshaw is set to tee up with a former European Tour player for a once-in-a-lifetime championship final in Turkey.
Bradshaw, a 57-year-old IT manager, will play alongside his club’s PGA Professional Karl O’Donnell in the Golfplan Insurance PGA Pro-Captain Challenge final at Antalya Golf Club.
The showpiece event will take place over the PGA Sultan Course on November 25-26 and has a total prize fund of £25,000.
O’Donnell and Bradshaw qualified to play alongside nine other pairings after winning their regional qualifier at Luttrellstown earlier this summer.
And the latter will be in safe hands alongside O’Donnell, who played in some of Europe’s leading golf events during the nineties.
“I think the key for us is going to be keeping Dermott nice and calm and relaxed,” admitted O’Donnell, who has qualified for the final of this event for the first time in his career.
“He proved in the qualifier that if he just goes out there and plays his game he is capable of putting in a competitive round.
“I’m quietly confident we can go out there and do well. We just want to take it in our stride and see what we can do while we’re out there.
“The last thing we want to do is put additional pressure on ourselves.”
The duo have known each other for 26 years since O’Donnell joined the club in the late eighties. Bradshaw has been a member at Newlands for more than 40 years since joining the club as a junior member.
And the duo had been working on the captain’s game over the course of the summer.
“I’d been working with Karl and it looks like it’s worked out,” he explained after completing his round at the qualifier.
“I knew I’d be playing more golf this year, but it wasn’t just that, I just wanted to play better.
“I was a bad nine handicapper and now I’m a better nine handicapper!”
View the full list of entries and event information for the championship final at Antalya Golf Club.
