Saturday, February 12, 2011

Where are they now? No 3 Mark Pilling, 2002 British boys champion

Mark Pilling with the British boys' championship trophy at Carnoustie in 2002 (image by Cal Carson Golf Agency).

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Why do so few winners of the British boys' open championship go on to fame and fortune as tour professionals? It would take a psychoanalyst to give you an in-depth answer to that one. I wouldn't even attempt it.
Mark Pilling from Cheshire won the Under-18s' national title at Carnoustie in 2002 when he beat Rhys Davies at the 37th hole of the 36-hole final.
Davies bounced back to win the championship the following year, beating Spain's Pablo Martin by one-hole in the final. Martin had already on the championship in 2001.
Both Davies and Martin are on the European Tour now.
Pilling? Well, he did turn pro but, unlike Davies and Martin, his golf game did not get better as he got older. But Mark has found happiness and a steady income from the teaching side of the game as the following article explains:

PILLING SACRIFICED PLAYING TO BE A COACH

FROM THE STAFFORDSHIRE SENTINEL,
 JUNE 2010
Former Astbury (Cheshire) star Mark Pilling advises youngsters who dream of playing professionally to first hit the heights in the amateur game.
Pilling, pictured as he is today,  spent three years attempting to make a living on tour before lack of cash forced him to turn towards coaching.
Today he is close to completing his PGA Foundation degree course and has ambitions to launch his own teaching academy.
Pilling said: "The standard in tour events is exceptionally good, although I think the top of amateur golf is similar to professional levels.
"But it is no good getting down to scratch or better. A lad who wants to turn pro has to make his mark by playing on a full-time basis and winning top national and international events such as the British Amateur championship, the Lytham Trophy and the Brabazon Trophy."
Pilling, aged 26, won the British boys' title in 2002 and the Faldo Series for talented youngsters throughout the country a year later. He also won the Cheshire men's county championship before joining the paid ranks in 2004.
He added: "I played on the European Tour and the lesser Tamsel Tour, winning the Caldy Open in 2006, but it can be an expensive business just entering events.
"So in 2007 I changed direction. I decided to go into teaching, rather than playing, and joined Prestbury as an assistant professional."Pilling appears to have found his niche. He was fifth in his "rookie of the year" examination in the north of England and in his second term was second in the running for trainee of the year.
Pilling aims to be one of the leading coaches in the region, being involved with county and national teams, and would like to become a head teaching professional at club level.
"I have largely sacrificed playing for teaching, but I am still entitled to enter pro events and will play in probably a dozen a year," he said.
Pilling is from Congleton, but could not live closer to work. Prestbury have three cottages on course and he rents one next to the clubhouse.

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TOO CLOSE TO CALL AS DUBAI FIELD MOVES INTO FINAL ROUND

FROM THE EUROPEAN TOUR WEBSITE
Thomas Aiken, Anders Hansen and Rory McIlroy share top spot at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic after a testing third round which ended with no fewer than 20 players within three shots of the lead.
And amongst them Tiger Woods is right in contention for a first title anywhere in almost 15 months, with the leaderboard looking too close to call, heading into Sunday's final round.
Windy conditions affected the later starters on day three at the Emirates Golf Club but former World No 1 Woods feels he has as good a chance as anyone after a battling level par 72.
That left him seven under par overall, one behind the leading trio of 2009 champion Rory McIlroy, Denmark's Hansen and in-form South African Aiken.
Nine players, including Woods, are within two of the leaders and the American superstar said: "I'm still in the ballgame. There are a bunch of guys there with a chance, and with the weather tomorrow you never know."
Woods closed with a 65 to triumph in Dubai in 2008 but does not expect that to give him any psychological edge.
"It's different conditions here (than in 2008), it's way different now," he added.
"If we get it like this tomorrow it will be a heck of a task, (but) it will be a lot of fun."
Woods was four over for his opening nine holes, but managed to put some horrid shots behind him on the inward half, an eagle three at the 548 yard tenth getting him on the right track.
Sergio Garcia, whose barren run extends even further than Woods' - right back to November 2008 - is in the group at seven under with Woods, France’s Jean-Baptiste Gonnet, Spanish pair Alvaro Velasco and Alvaro Quiros, Australian Brett Rumford and Swede Fredrik Andersson Hed. Garcia led for much of the day until he double-bogeyed the 359yd 17th.
Garcia has slipped from second to 79th in the world and took time out to try to discover his zest for the game.
Speaking about the 17th, he said: "It was unfortunate, I thought I was doing pretty well in the conditions. I didn't play the back nine that badly, I was holding it nicely and I had a couple of chances to get to ten (under). The good thing is that I'm still in it, I could have had a one-shot lead, but that's the way it is."
Northern Irishman McIlroy led at the end of the first and second rounds but his hopes of a wire-to-wire victory looked distant when he bogeyed four of his opening seven holes. Birdies at the ninth and 12th left him three over for the day but still firmly in contention.
He said: "The conditions were a lot different and I got off to a rough start, but I thought I steadied the ship really well. To be four over through seven and play the last 11 holes in one under is a pretty good effort."
Aiken - with six top-14 finishes in seven events this season - was one shot better off than McIlroy in his third round, while Hansen managed to finish one under thanks to birdies at the first, tenth and 13th.
“It was an extremely demanding golf course today,” said 27 year old Aiken. “The wind was not just blowing, but it was gusting and swirling from all different directions. You really had to take time over your shots.”
Hansen was delighted with his performance- particularly as it came in the context playing in front of packed galleries alongside Woods.
“I was very happy,” he said. “I was chipping the ball well, so that was good to keep the score going.
“It was always going to be a tough day playing with Tiger. He's a super guy and it's not his fault the crowd is going crazy out there and that there's so much movement around. It's just a bit difficult for his playing partners. 
“We had a chat about it. He knows what's going on, but he's a great guy and I really enjoyed (his company) too.”
Last year’s Challenge Tour No 1 Velasco shot the best round of the day with a seven under 65 to go into a share of fourth, and having made the cut with nothing to spare it was no coincidence that he was among the earlier starters who avoided the worst of the blustery conditions.
Martin Kaymer's quest to depose Lee Westwood as World No 1 looks almost certain to be unsuccessful this week. The German needs a top-two finish in Dubai to climb to the top of the rankings but a four over par 76 left him in a tie for 47th.
Westwood, who missed the cut in Qatar last time out, is faring much better this week and a level par round left him at five under overall.
He said: "It was a really grinding day, especially this afternoon. We'd seen people go out this morning in probably the easier conditions and shoot some low scores.
"I thought I should have shot 70. I didn't make a putt over about six feet so that was the main problem. But I played quite solidly, didn't make too many mistakes and I might have a chance tomorrow."



TO VIEW THE EUROPEAN TOUR'S SCOREBOARD



THIRD-ROUND LEADERBOARD
Par 216 (3x72)
208 Anders Hansen (Denmark) 69 68 71, Thomas Aiken (S Africa) 67 67 74, Rory McIlroy (N Ireland) 65 68 75.
209 Alvaro Velasco (Spain) 74 70 65, Alvaro Quiros (Spain) 73 68 68, Fredrik Andersson Hed (Sweden) 69 71 69, Brett Rumford (Australia) 69 68 72, Tiger Woods (US) 71 66 72, Sergio Garcia (Spain) 657 67 75.
210 Stephen Gallacher (Scotland) 70 69 71, Michael Hoey (N Ireland) 70 69 71 (T11).
OTHER SCOTS' TOTALS
213 Richie Ramsay 71 69 73, Marc Warren 72 67 74 (T26).
214 David Drysdale 73 71 70 (T34).
216 Ross Bain 75 69 72 (T47).

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BLAKE COMES IN FROM THE COLD TO LEAD US SENIORS' OPENER

FROM THE GOLF.COM WEBSITE
BOCA RATON, Florida (AP) — A lack of practice didn't hurt Jay Don Blake in his US Champions (Seniors) Tour debut this season.
Blake opened with an eight-under 64 at the Allianz Championship yesterday to take a one-stroke lead over Tom Lehman after the first round of the over-50 circuit's first full-field event.
"I'm still trying to knock the icicles off my body from living in Utah," said Blake, who has been busy remodeling his house in St. George. "It's been crazy with how bad the weather's been."
Blake didn't look rusty or frozen in shooting eight birdies in a bogey-free round on the Old Course at Broken Sound. The 60-degree temperatures felt downright balmy and Blake wasn't bothered by the occasional drizzle.
"I felt I kept my composure out there and executed the shots I needed to," said Blake, whose wife, Marci, is his caddy. "You have to make some putts to shoot a round of 64 and I felt like I putted really well."
Lehman had no complaints about his 65 coming off the US PGA Tour stop in Phoenix, where he played 54 holes in 29 hours because of bad weather.
"Bogey-free round - pretty stress-free," Lehman said. "There were a lot of good scores. The greens were perfect. The wind wasn't too strong. So if you hit good shots and a few good putts, you could definitely have a good round of golf.
"And I started my round out beautifully. I birdied the first three holes and kind of got the run going right off the bat."
Lehman was in position to tie Blake with a birdie on the par-5 18th, but he hit a short chip about 9 feet past the pin, then missed the putt and settled for a par.
"It was just disappointing to not make a four with such a good tee shot," he said. "Chip on 18 didn't come off the club face like I expected at all. It was a disappointing chip."
Scott Simpson, Peter Senior, Tom Jenkins and Jeff Sluman were tied for third at 6 under.
Simpson, Senior and Jenkins birdied seven holes and bogeyed one, while Sluman had six birdies.
Defending champion Bernhard Langer shot a 68 to tie for 14th with seven other players. The German had five birdies to offset a bogey on the par-4 fourth.
Olin Browne marked up the third hole-in-one in Allianz Championship history, hitting a 6-iron on the 176-yard eighth. He finished with a 69.
Jim Colbert, the winner of 20 senior titles and the 1995 and 1996 Player of the Year, became the ninth player in Champions Tour history to make his 500th start.
"I feel like I have more game now than I had the last few years," said Colbert, who shot a 75. "It's my hobby. I don't do anything else. And I feel like I'm still working at it."

+England's Roger Chapman had a 71 to be in joint 44th position while Scotland's Sandy Lyle had a 78 to be sharing 78th position.

TO READ ALL THE SCORES, CHECK THE SCORECARDS ON

THE US PGA SENIORS' TOUR WEBSITE,

CLICK HERE
SCOREBOARD TO COME

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