Mark Pilkington (born 17 March 1978) is a Welsh professional

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er.

Career

Pilkington was born in Bangor,

Gwynedd Gwynedd (; ) is a county and preserved county (latter with differing boundaries; includes the Isle of Anglesey) in the north-west of Wales. It shares borders with Powys, Conwy County Borough, Denbighshire, Anglesey over the Menai Strait, and C ...

. He enjoyed a successful amateur career, representing Wales at all levels, and highlighted by winning the Welsh Amateur Championship in 1998. He turned professional later that year, immediately after winning a place on the

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

at final

qualifying school In professional golf, the term qualifying school is used for the annual qualifying tournaments for leading golf tours such as the U.S.-based PGA and LPGA Tours and the European Tour. A fixed number of players in the event win membership of the ...

. Pilkington had an unsuccessful rookie season on the European Tour in 1999, and played on the

Challenge Tour The Challenge Tour is the second-tier men's professional golf tour in Europe. It is operated by the PGA European Tour and, as with on the main European Tour and the European Senior Tour, some of the events are played outside Europe. History The ...

the following season after failing to regain his card at qualifying school. He followed up a consistent Challenge Tour season with success at qualifying school to return to the top level for 2001. He managed to retain his European Tour card by finishing inside the top 100 on the Order of Merit in both 2001 and 2002, but his form dipped in 2003 and he dropped back down to the second tier for 2004. After two largely unsuccessful seasons on the Challenge Tour, Pilkington's fortunes were revived in 2006 when he produced consistently good performances to finish the season on top of the Challenge Tour Rankings. After a slow start to the season, he recorded back to back second-place finishes, before rounding off the season with victory in the

Kazakhstan Open The Kazakhstan Open was a men's professional golf tournament on the Challenge Tour, the official developmental tour of the European Tour. First played in 2005, it was held at the Nurtau Golf Club in Almaty, Kazakhstan for the first four editions b ...

and another runners-up prize at the

Apulia San Domenico Grand Final The Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final is the season-ending tour championship on the Challenge Tour. The field currently consists of the top 45 players on the Challenge Tour rankings vying for fifteen European Tour cards. It has been played annually ...

. By topping the money list, he had regained his card on the European Tour; but in 2007 he finished in 136th place on the Order of Merit to again lose his place on the elite tour.

Amateur wins

*1996 Peter McEvoy Trophy *1998 Welsh Amateur Championship

Professional wins (2)

Challenge Tour wins (1)

Challenge Tour playoff record (0–1)

Other wins (1)

*2019

Welsh PGA Championship The Welsh National PGA Championship is a golf tournament played annually in Wales since 1904. For many years the event was called the Welsh Professional Championship. Currently entry is restricted to professionals employed by a Welsh club and thos ...

Results in major championships

''Note: Pilkington only played in The Open Championship.''
CUT = missed the half-way cut

Team appearances

Amateur *

European Boys' Team Championship The European Boys' Team Championship (Jean-Louis Dupont Trophy) is a European amateur team golf championship for men up to 18 organized by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1980 and it has been played annually since. S ...

(representing Wales): 1995, 1996 *

European Amateur Team Championship The European Amateur Team Championship is a European amateur team golf championship for men organised by the European Golf Association which was introduced in 1959. The championship was played in odd-numbered years from 1959 to 2007 and has been ...

(representing Wales):

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

European Youths' Team Championship The European Youths' Team Championship was a European amateur team golf championship for men under 22 organized by the European Golf Association. The inaugural event was held in 1961. It was played every year until 1982, then every second year. It ...

(representing Wales): 1998 (winners)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pilkington, Mark Welsh male golfers European Tour golfers Sportspeople from Bangor, Gwynedd 1978 births Living people