Franny McGuirk has made the perfect start to the defence of his Order of Merit title on the TP Tour.

The Prince’s GC professional won the first two tournaments on the UK-based tour.

His opening victory came at Denham GC on Friday thanks to a five-under-par round of 65 on the Buckinghamshire course.

Then, on Monday, McGuirk (pictured) was on much more familiar territory at Royal St George’s, where last July he qualified for the first two rounds of the Open.

He fired a two-under-par 68 to win by one shot from Darren Prosser of Staffordshire.

McGuirk said: "They set the pin positions in exactly the same places where they were for the final day of the Open and so it was nice to get the opportunity to play them."

McGuirk is already looking forward to trying to qualify for this year’s Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes but is unsure if he will have to go through regional qualifying or advance to the final qualifying stage.

He said: "Because I had a good finish to last year, including reaching final qualifying in the European Tour qualifying, I am hoping that will be good enough to get me straight through to final qualifying for the Open but I have got to check it out."