LOCAL professional golfer Jamie Dick bagged a third place in The Gecko Tour at the Miguel Angel Jimenez Golf Academy and managed to meet up with the Ryder Cup legend himself!

The latest result came at the Reale Seguros sponsored Par-3 event at Jimenez’s Academy, with a Level Par performance by Jamie over three rounds of 18 holes.

It turned out to be a very tough course on which only the top three players out of a total field of 39 matched par or better.

The winner by some margin was local hero, Cordoba-based professional Marco Pastor, who is one of Spain’s finest players from 120m and closer, and leads the overall Order of Merit table.

Jamie has managed six top 20 places out of eight events so far this year on the Costa del Sol and, with just two events remaining, is hoping to finish inside the top 10 on the tour’s Order of Merit before he returns to the UK to play on the PGA EuroPro Tour.

“It was quite a cool day to be practicing next to one of your idols!” Dick said.

“The man is an absolute hero and maybe one of the most humble down to earth guys I have ever had the pleasure to talk to.”

Still only 19 years old, Jamie is sponsored by local house builders Brideoak Homes and is the Touring Professional for Sherdons Golf Centre near Tewkesbury.

His long time coach Richard Ballard, a PGA Professional and Gloucestershire County Coach, has his golf academy based at Sherdons.