FOR a teetotaller, pro golfer Mark Ridley fell off the wagon in style when he played an event on the western Mediterranean coast in Turkey.

After finishing fourth with an amateur partner, Ridley went to the tournament’s gala dinner and karaoke and then on to a bar in Antalya.

“The camaraderie among players from all over the UK was so good I thought I would enter into the spirit of the occasion, “he said.

“I can’t remember too much about it. But I am told I drank a lot and that I went to bed at 3.45am. I woke up at 4.30 in the afternoon feeling ropey.

“I was so rough it reminded me why I don’t drink and I have happily gone back to being a teetotaller, thank you very much!”

Ridley is a PGA professional at the South Moor club in Stanley, County Durham. He celebrates his 50th birthday in September and hopes to qualify for next year’s PGA European Senior Tour.

He is a former Durham amateur champion and a winner on the regional tour for PGA professionals in the North East and Cumbria.

In Turkey, Ridley played alongside Michael Bowman, a 43-year-old production planning controller for Rolls-Royce who lives in Chester-le-Street.

They represented South Moor in the Golfplan Insurance PGA Pro-Captain Challenge final.

Ridley, from Lanchester, added: “We had a fantastic sunshine trip and we were lucky to go to Turkey.”

DURHAM teenagers Briony Bayles and Shannon O’Dwyer birdied their way to victory in the tenth anniversary PING Fourball Betterball Grand Final.

The pair, from The Wynyard Club, birdied the first two holes and the last two on the Karsten Lakes course at PING’s Gainsborough Golf Club and notched up 43 points – to win by one.

They completed a clean sweep when Shannon won the putting prize, with an iPING handicap of +2.8; and Briony won the longest drive competition with a shot of 208 yards.

Shannon spoke for them both when she said: “It’s just great to say you’ve played in something like this and done well.”

They came through an initial entry of over 16,000 players from almost 850 clubs in the tournament, which is run by England Golf. The top 50 pairs in the country qualified for the Grand Final while the next 50 pairs went through to yesterday’s Plate Final.