By Steve Acteson

Canterbury Golf Club’s Ali Ord and Sarah Wetherell have reached the Daily Mail Foursomes National Finals after a 7&6 home victory over Carmel Lawlor and Caryn Stevenson of Banstead Downs in the seventh and final qualifying round on Saturday.

They earned the win, despite giving their opponents 10 shots.

Ord and Wetherell lost the second but Ord drove to the green on the third and they then won every hole up to the 10th before successive halves took them into the final stages of a competition billed as the world’s greatest amateur golfing event.

More than 190,000 players from 1,486 clubs in England, Scotland and Wales began the qualifying rounds for men and women in February, and Ord and Wetherell are the first Canterbury pair to reach the Finals.

The last 16 pairs in each section will now fight it out for ultimate glory at the Marriott St Pierre club, Chepstow, from October 8 until October 10.

The latest triumph came only three days after Ord had won her first Canterbury ladies’ club championship.

“It’s been an amazing week of golf,” she said.

“Me and Sarah were quite shocked and surprised to get through and never believed we could win so easily.

“We were saying walking up to the first tee ‘We’ve just done amazingly well to get this far and this pair must be really strong because they’ve got through to the seventh round.’

“It was a real combination of us playing well and really steady, and them not playing as well as they could have.

“We halved the first, lost the second, birdied the third and fourth to go one up and then won every hole up to the 10th. Then, we halved 11 and 12 with bogeys for the match.

“Sarah and I are part of a group of 12 Canterbury ladies going to Portugal in October and we come back three days before Chepstow starts.

“We’ll have lots of practice and I think it’s a good omen because last year a group of us went to La Manga in Spain, flew back the day before the Bradley Cook Parallel Plate Final and we won!

“And it was in La Manga that Sarah and I decided to play in this so it was a pretty chance pairing.”

Wetherell said: “It’s an amazing journey and an amazing result. It’s not something I ever expected to be part of.

“Ali played very, very well and, for the first time, I thought we both played well.”

Club captain Mark Broadhurst said: “It’s fantastic, not only for them, but for the club.

“They’ve got to be so proud to fly the flag for Canterbury.

“I’m sure all the members wish them the very best of luck in the Finals’ and I’m sure, if they carry on the way they’ve been playing, they might be bringing that national title home to Canterbury.”