Jonathan Gidney played for England as an amateur - unlike Lyle and Woosnam

Shropshire's Jonathan Gidney is chasing a place on the full PGA European Tour for 2012 as he prepares for his second year as a full-time professional.

The 23-year-old from Church Stretton also wants to follow in the path of Shropshire's two former major winners Sandy Lyle and Ian Woosnam.

"They're two I look up to, and they're definite inspirations," Gidney told BBC Radio Shropshire.

"But I'm broadening my experience on the Europro circuit this year.

"My aim is to get good enough results to get me up to the highest level - that's the dream."

Gidney took the professional plunge after an amateur career that included winning the Welsh Youth title and playing for England (unlike Lyle, who represented Scotland, and Woosnam, who played for Wales).

"It'll be hard work," he said. "The packing, the travelling, the practice.

"But, whenever you stand on the first tee, it makes all that worthwhile.

"A lot of golf is in the mind rather than in the swing or the technical side, and you've got to have the confidence in yourself to get where you want to go."

Lyle's two major wins came in 1985, when he won the Open Championship at Royal St Georges's, and 1988, when he claimed a green jacket by winning the Masters.

Former world number one Woosnam, from Oswestry, then repeated Hawkstone Park's Lyle's triumph at Augusta, when he too won the Masters in 1991.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version