By Tony Harrison

Last updated at 11:06, Saturday, 25 October 2008

Keswick duo Alan McNichol and Richard Barnes have won the 2008 International Pairs UK Final at Carnoustie.

TOP PAIR: International Pairs UK winners Richard Barnes (left) and Alan McNichol from Keswick Golf Club

McNichol, who plays off 20, and 13-handicapper Barnes, overcame fierce competition from 39 other pairs to score 82 Stableford points and claim the UK title by one point in the 36-hole event held on Scotland’s east coast.

The Cumbrian pair were three points off the lead after scoring 44 points on Carnoustie’s Burnside course. But they then surged through the field in the second round on the Angus venue’s feared Championship Course to finish ahead of Withernsea father and son Steve and Steve Dale Jnr and Laceby Manor’s Craig Gibbon and Scott Templeman by the narrowest of margins.

But McNichol, 51, and Barnes, 43, revealed that they had virtually written off their chances of winning after a disastrous build-up to the second day of the competition.

McNichol, 51, who is a steward at Keswick Golf Club, added: “We had never played any links courses in Scotland before this and our victory is all remarkable as our course doesn’t have any bunkers and we didn’t quite know what to do when we went in them.

“To get the chance to play at Carnoustie is a dream come true and to have the chance to come back here exceeds all our expectations.”

First published at 10:01, Saturday, 25 October 2008
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk