FORMER Blackburn driving range pro Jeff Mathews begins his quest for the Open Championship on Monday -- but really wishes he wasn't!

Mathews is in the final stages of building his own driving range at Samlesbury Hall and thinks he has better things to do than qualify for the world's biggest golf event.

"I haven't really got time to play in the Open but it's cost me £95 so I suppose I'd better give it a shot," joked the Burnley-based Geordie, who will play his regional qualifying round at Carlisle.

"I have too much to do at the moment with trying to build the driving range. I have just got so much going on.

"The only reason I have entered is because it is at Lytham. If it had been in Scotland I don't think I would have bothered."

The driving range at Samlesbury has been at the planning stages for nearly two years. Now the builders have moved in and Mathews can see his dream taking shape.

"We have just started building this week, we have got diggers all over the place," he said.

"It has taken a year and a half to get to this stage and we hope to be open on August 1."

Mathews has adopted a very hands-on approach to the driving range, from designing the bays to making sure the builders keep up the hard work!

"I only know about golf, I don't know anything about building but it's my baby," he said.

"I have designed the shop, the bays, everything, I wanted to do as much as I could because you can trust yourself to do things right.

"And if I wasn't there the builders would be slacking off all the time!"

He has gone into partnership with his father-in-law and says he will lose everything if it doesn't work out.

"I have put everything I have into it," he said. "If it doesn't work out I will end up living on the streets.

"But it has always been in my plans to open a driving range and this opportunity came up and I was in the right place at the right time.

"Samlesbury Hall had bought this land and they didn't know what they were going to do with it. I was asked to go down and have a look at it and it went from there."

Since leaving Blackburn driving range last November, Mathews has had to rely on his winnings to keep him ticking over.

"I am still playing because I have had nothing coming in for six months, since I left Blackburn," he said.

"But I am 40 this week, I'm getting on a bit and you can't play golf forever.

"I was at Blackburn for 12 years and it wasn't that difficult to leave really because I had played a lot of golf in the two years beforehand.

"But I left there in November and that is a long time not to be working. I will be relieved when the driving range opens.

"And I will be relieved when the tills start ringing."

Mathews, who will teach at the new driving range, reckons he has a chance in the Open, even though his mind might not be completely focused on it.

"Of course I think I have a chance. If I didn't have a chance I wouldn't have entered.

"I made it in 1985 and I have been close on a few occasions since then so I know I can do it."