ENGLAND CAP FISHER FOR EUROPEAN TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ross Fisher, the 22-year-old from the Wentworth Club, is
the only new cap named by England in a strong line-up for
next month’s European men’s Team Championships
in Holland.
Richard Finch and Gary Wolstenholme, fresh from outstanding
victories north of the border in recent weeks, are also selected
along with fellow internationals Jonathan Lupton, Richard
Walker and Oliver Wilson for the biennial tournament at Royal
Hague Golf Club on 1-5 July.
Fisher has enjoyed an outstanding season so far. After being
named in the England Potential A Squad last winter, he has
won the Sunningdale Foursomes with Wentworth colleague Simon
Griffiths, finished tied fourth in the Berkhamsted Trophy,
and recently finished joint winner of the Berkshire Trophy.
Having won the Tillman Trophy in 2001, Fisher reached the
fifth round of the English Amateur Championships at Walton
Heath last year after which he represented England in the
Greek Amateur in Glyfada.
Finch, who has just turned 26 and was first capped in 2000,
has also had an eventful year. After becoming English Champion
at Walton Heath last August, he has played in Australia and
South Africa this year and completed another fine victory
when he won the St Andrews Links Trophy recently.
Wolstenholme, who will turn 43 in August, will be playing
in his fifth European Team Championships and has yet to finish
on the winning side. However, England’s most successful
golfer is on top form, confirmed last week at Royal Troon
when he completed his second victory in the Amateur Championship,
12 years after his first.
Lupton, 24, made his England debut in the 2001 Home Internationals
and has been a regular since. The Yorkshireman won the team
event with Wolstenholme in the Lake Macquarie International
in Australia in January and claimed his biggest victory to
date when he won the Brabazon Trophy at Hunstanton last month.
Like the rest of his teammates apart from Fisher, Walker
is a member of the squad from which the Walker Cup team will
be selected. The 32-year-old from Lancashire can claim the
Brabazon Trophy and the German and Portuguese Amateur titles
among his growing portfolio of successes and now lines up
for his first tilt at the European Team Championships.
Wilson, 22, has just graduated from Augusta State University
in Georgia, having been No.1 player in their college team.
He has enjoyed a number of victories on the college circuit
in America and has been named an All American for the third
time.
Wolstenholme is the sole survivor of the team that finished
third in the European Men’s Team Championships in Sweden
two years ago. This will be the 23rd playing of the Championships
and England has lifted the title on eight occasions, the last
being in Spain in 1991.
The full England team is:
Richard Finch (Hull) Ross Fisher (Wentworth)
Jonathan Lupton (Middlesbrough) Richard Walker (Frodsham)
Oliver Wilson (Coxmoor) Gary Wolstenholme (Kilworth Springs)
Reserves: Graeme Clark (Doncaster) and Paul Bradshaw (Gainsborough)
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