It's not the US PGA but a major nevertheless
HAD he accepted the invitation former Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst would next week have been a contender in the fourth golfing major of the season, the US PGA.
HAD he accepted the invitation former Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst would next week have been a contender in the fourth golfing major of the season, the US PGA.
Back in the 1980s Broadhurst could be found playing the L'Ancresse links during an era when many of England's top amateurs accepted invitations to play in the most prestigious golfing event in the Channel Islands calendar - the L'Ancresse Open.
David Gilford, another to win Ryder Cup honours, and Peter McEvoy, were other top amateurs who happily played L'Ancresse in the pursuit of good prizes and a thoroughly good social weekend.
None of them quite managed to win it, although McEvoy achieved the honour of being the leading scratch player four times between 1985 and 1992.
This Saturday sees the 28th staging of the event and while the top amateurs no longer pop over and fewer of Jersey's top players fly in for the weekend, the Investec L'Ancresse Open, as it's now known, retains its lofty status on the Guernsey golfing calendar.
It remains over-subscribed with a prize list second to none.
Ken Giles regards it with particular fondness.
The former island player was one of the inaugural three-man committee who kick-started the event and in 2004, after a few near misses, he finally got to win it.
Giles will be a little ring-rusty, by his own admission.
A bad back has severely restricted his appearances on the course this summer, to the extent that Monday's Veterans v. L'Ancresse team match was just his third round of the season.
'It doesn't bode well for Saturday,' said the champion, before adding: 'another day, another dawn.'
Giles has been around long enough to know that anything can happen and just about anyone can win on the big day.
He also knows that the list of past winners highlights that it's not a competition a player usually wins twice, unless your name happens to be Steve Ogier or Merv Marquand, who have both achieved the honour.
Bobby Eggo was the first winner, back in 1978, but since then has been restricted to claiming the scratch prize. He's made a habit of doing that, though.
His scratch prize wins now stands at 10, including the three most recent.
Down the years, most of Jersey's best players have tried and failed to win the main prize.
To date, only one of the Caesareans' top performers, Kevin O'Toole, has taken the trophy back across the water.
Giles says it was Jersey golf's failings which were behind L'Ancresse to introduce the open in the first place.
'We came up with the idea of a competition where there was more chance of winning a prize.'
And so they did and very successfully with a stroke of luck.
The first organising committee - Giles, Barry Tullier and the late Herbie Machon - managed to find a perfect sponsor, Falla's Travel.
'We were lucky to find a sponsor and someone like Mr Burns and his wife at Falla's Travel.
'They stayed on for 25 years and we are very grateful to them,' said Giles.
Thanks to the generous sponsorship the open was able to deliver more chance of success to the field.
'There's always been 20 handicap prizes roughly, plus three or four scratch ones, a veterans prize and nearest-the-pins,' said Giles who recalls presentation nights when it was so packed in the old clubhouse, that not every could get in and drinks would be passed outside.
