ENGLAND SEEK ANOTHER FINNISH SUCCESS
Amateur champion Gary Wolstenholme will lead a three-strong
group from England’s Elite Squad to compete in the 54-hole
Finnish Open Amateur Championship at Helsinki Golf Club on
7-9 August.
Wolstenholme (Kilworth Springs) will be accompanied by Ross
Fisher (Wentworth) and Michael Skelton (Middlesbrough).
Wolstenholme is a past winner of the Finnish title, his victory
coming in 1996, while another previous English winner was
Simon Dyson, now a professional on the European Tour.
The current season is proving a highly productive one for
Wolstenholme, who will turn 43 next month. He won the individual
title in the Sherry Cup in Spain in April, became England’s
most capped player during the international with Spain at
Lindrick in May, then captured his second Amateur Championship
at Royal Troon last month.
Since then he has added the Scottish Stroke Play Championship
and made his fifth appearance in the European Men’s
Team Championships in Holland.
Fisher’s recent addition to the Elite Squad follows
a fourth place in the Berkhamsted Trophy, third in the Hampshire
Hog, second in the Hampshire Salver and joint ninth in the
Brabazon Trophy.
The 22-year-old also won the Sunningdale Foursomes with Wentworth
partner Simon Griffiths and shared the title in the Berkshire
Trophy, which prompted his full England debut in the European
Men’s Team Championships.
Skelton, 19, has been on the international scene at under-16
and boys level since 1999, during which he captured the McGregor
Trophy and the Daily Telegraph Junior Championship.
Last year he helped Yorkshire win both the Boys and Senior
County Championships and was added to the Elite and Walker
Cup squads early in 2003. Skelton capped a successful first
half of the season recently by winning the Welsh Stroke Play
Championship at Prestatyn.
Apart from the individual championship, England will be defending
the Nations Cup over the opening 36 holes, the best two cards
to count. The trio of Lee Corfield, Jonathan Lupton and Richard
Walker won the title by a shot a year ago.
On that occasion, Walker finished runner-up in the individual,
two strokes behind the winner, while Wolstenholme was a stroke
further back in joint fourth place.
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