SOME of Bury’s top golfers will converge on Southport’s renowned Hillside Golf Club tomorrow to compete in the prestigious Lancashire Amateur Championship.

The 7,030-yards course, which invariably comes with a strong sea breeze at best, will offer a severe test to even the best of golfers. However, for serious players, the Lancashire Championship is what dreams are made of and many of the Bury contingent will be hoping to make the cut after 36 holes.

Ciaran Doherty, one of the town’s top golfers and a member of Bury Golf Club, will be looking to break into the top 10 this year after his 19th placing in last year’s championship. He will certainly start with some confidence after breaking the course record at Wallasey last Sunday with a seven-under-par 65 gross in the Frank Stableford Trophy.

The 23-year-old first came to prominence at the age of 14 when he joined the Lancashire junior squad and soon became a top team member appearing in two Northern County junior finals. He has since excelled to become a regular at senior level and was included in the six–man county team at Hopwood yesterday in the Northern Counties qualifiers.

Brothers Anthony, aged 21 and Ian Stirling, 18, from Harwood and Formby have both been regular members of the Lancashire junior squad. Anthony finished an excellent eighth place in last year’s event and says he wants to go a step further this year. Meanwhile Ian, who missed the cut last year, is intent on making the top 20 in what will be his second appearance at the LAC.

Another local Bury player, Hannan Mahmood, makes his debut at Hillside – his first major championship. The 18-year-old has already made his mark within the County and aiming to produce a good performance over the four-day haul.

Rossendale’s Ashley Siddle makes a start tomorrow with a hope of by-gone days when, as a 17-year-old, he reached the semi-final of the 2001 English Amateur Championship at Saunton where he lost to the eventual winner – Scott Godfrey. Siddle also played five times for Lancashire in 2002 with only one loss. A lone Pike Fold contender is Ben Richards who has made several county junior appearances including two “Four Counties” wins as part of a six-man team. This will be his second showing in the LAC. Sixteen-year-old George Owen of Greenmount and S&A is another Lancashire junior who is currently in the under-18s squad.