DAVID Sanderson celebrated an ‘extraordinary’ win after reaching the Bahamas final in the Virgin Atlantic PGA National Pro-Am Championship qualifier at Parkstone.

Sanderson, 47, had never even played in a pro-am event before. But he teamed up with Remedy Oak PGA professional Nigel Tokely to card 10 under par and win the SkyCad-die-supported event by two shots ahead of Epsom’s Stuart Walker and Mike Dowdell.

The winners are through to the Grand Final in the Bahamas where a £5,000 first prize is on offer at the Sandals Resort Emerald Bay on November 23-28.

Sanderson, managing director of a renewable energy company, said: “I’d really only won teapots before this. So this is undoubtedly my greatest golfing moment to reach the final in the Bahamas.

“But I honestly thought we’d have a decent chance because we’ve both been playing well this year.

“I had played with Nigel before and knew what a good player he was. But I had never played in a pro-am event before so it wasn’t a bad debut I suppose!"

And he joked: “Everything from here on will probably be a huge disappointment after this! To actually come through and win the event is an extraordinary feeling. It was just one of those days when everything seemed to go right.

“We worked well as a team and I don’t suppose we’ll fall out before the November final so we’re both really looking forward to that.”

Tokely, who shot a five-under-par 67, praised his playing partner for improving his game over the past year.

“David’s got his handicap down from 14 to nine in about 12 months,” he said.

“So he’s worked really hard at it. I hadn’t been playing that much to be honest, over the last 18 months I’ve become director of golf as well as head professional at the club.

“But I managed to get in a couple of competitions recently and that seemed to make the difference. I played well in those and carried it on into this event. David played solidly and we were able to build on four successive birdies early on.”