Jonathan Lupton plans to look for a job as a club professional if he fails
to graduate from the European Tour school in the autumn.
The 29-year-old Middlesbrough assistant, in a three-way share of the lead
going into the third and final round of the Leeds Cup at Cobble Hall,
revealed: "I got married last year and I'm keen to settle down so I could
well be making my last attempt to win a card.
"I'm in my final year of PGA training and when I'm fully qualified I'll be
quite happy combining a club job with playing regional and county events."
But if he does make it to the big-time, it will be courtesy of the hugely
supportive Middlesbrough members who are holding a fund-raising day next
month to pay his entrance fee.
Lupton, runner-up in his defence of his Powerade PGA Assistants'
Championship last week and winner of the Brabazon Trophy in 2003 before
joining the paid ranks, signed for a second round 67 and a five-under-par
aggregate matched by in-form Marriott Worsley Park assistant John Cheetham,
24, and Scott Barber, 33, from Waterton Park in a tournament sponsored by
E-Z-Go in association with Kronenbourg 1664.
All three had identical round scores with Lupton, having saved his par by
chipping in at the third after tangling with the trees, cancelling out two
bogeys with four birdies but rued three missed chances from close in.
Barber, an assistant at Abbeydale before moving to Germany for 12 years,
returning home to Worksop with his family last summer, picked up three
birdies.
Cheetham enjoyed a run of four threes from the sixth hole, two of them
birdies, for the second day running.
And maybe fate will give him a helping hand today because he triumphed in
the James Brearley Lancashire Open at Blackpool North Shore eight days ago -
79 years after the legendary Abe Mitchell won the Leeds Cup over the same
links!
Among four players a shot off the pace was Alex Belt, the newly-crowned
Automatic Retailing North Region champion from Bridlington Links, and Matfen
Hall's John Harrison who hopes to carry his form to next week's Rock
tournament at his club Matfen Hall.