STEADY: Gary Stubbington in action.

GARY STUBBINGTON created regional golfing history when he topped the Southern PGA Order of Merit for the second year run-ning last autumn.

No-one has ever won it back to back and his reward for the second year running is a special invitation into the Benson & Hedges Open (starting Thursday) and the Volvo PGA Championship, the first big domestic events on the Volvo European PGA Tour.

And that's as far as Stubbington means history to repeat itself. Last year he nar-rowly missed the halfway cuts and the possibility of earning a lucrative cheque at both tournaments.

His demise in the Volvo PGA at Wentworth particularly hurt his mind and his wallet because he had been up with the leaders after a first round 69.

That three under par effort Stubbington rates as "the round of his life." But if that one was sweet the next, a torturous 76, was sour and he says: "I never want to go through that again.

"My aim this year is to go through the cut at both tourna-ments. And having got to know the two courses at The Oxfordshire and Wentworth better, I believe I have a better chance," says the Dummer Club professional who lives in North Baddesley.

"I learned a valuable lesson last year. When I turned up at The Oxfordshire for the Benson & Hedges, I looked around the practice ground and saw players like Montgomerie and Langer and got a bit carried away with it all. This time I will stay a lot more focussed on my own game."

Stubbington's concentration on work at Dummer, undergoing changes after a change of ownership, has presented him with precious little time to prepare for Thursday "but that may not be a bad thing," he says. "Last year I may have spent too much time thinking about it and preparing for it."

At least he has got one good tournament under his belt, the South Winchester Winter Pro-Am in which he took on the combined talents of European Tour campaigners Steve Richardson and Rob Edwards.

He finished in a fourway tie for first place with both players and his big Hampshire PGA rival John Hay. The quartet finished at two over par.

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