Matthew Dearden poised to live the dream

14 Sep 2012

The Vale Resort's Matthew Dearden has gone one step closer to fulfilling a dream of rubbing shoulders with the stars at BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth next summer.

The Vale Resort's Matthew Dearden has gone one step closer to fulfilling a dream of rubbing shoulders with Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and co in the star-studded BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth next summer.

The 33-year-old, who has spent the last couple of years trying to earn a golfing crust on the little-known EPD Tour in Germany, could get the chance to mix it with the millionaires of the world game at the European Tour’s blue riband event courtesy of winning the West Region PGA order of merit.

For Dearden, channelling all his focus on the West Region this summer rather than trying to carve out a living on satellite tours in Europe, is set to be rewarded with an invite to next year’s ISPS Handa Wales Open.

Though it was not quite the finish he wanted, Dearden was finally crowned order of merit champion for the first time and has now set his sights on making his European Tour debut next season.

Dearden, from the Vale Resort, failed to make much of an impact in the final event, the Race to Woodbury Park tournament at the region’s Devon headquarters, but he had already done enough to clinch the top spot

This enables him to lead the trio to represent the West in the Titleist PGA Play-Offs over the PGA Sultan course at Antalya in Turkey from December 10-13.

The leading players can expect to get starts in the PGA at Wentworth and feature in other European Tour and Challenge Tour events next season. Dearden, who will interrupt a family holiday to play in Turkey, finished in a share of 12th suffering from two double bogeys in a second-round 73 after opening with 70.

He said: “There was a lot of pressure on me and in the end I had to forget about winning and make sure I consolidated my order of merit position.

“It is every player’s dream to play at Wentworth and this year there were 10 places available so I must have a reasonable chance of getting there. It would be great to play in the Wales Open as well.”