WOLSTENHOLME WINS CHAMPIONS CHALLENGE
Gary Wolstenholme gained a major boost ahead of next week's
US Masters when he beat Australian teenager Nick Flanagan
4 and 2 in the battle of the transatlantic Amateur champions.
The traditional Georgia Cup head-to-head match, played at
the Golf Club of Georgia in Atlanta, saw Wolstenholme dig
deep into his wealth of experience despite being outdriven
by his younger opponent.
The 43-year-old Wolstenholme, still remembered for beating
Tiger Woods in the 1995 Walker Cup at Royal Porthcawl, covered
the four par-fives on the Creekside course in five under par,
eagling the fifth hole after firing a seven-wood to two feet.
"Nick was not quite on his game, but this is a big thing
for me," said Wolstenholme. "We're both competitive
and hate losing."
Now both Flanagan, the 19-year-old US Amateur champion, and
Wolstenholme, England's most capped player, head off to the
Masters where the Leicestershire man is hoping for a happy
return to Augusta National after a gap of 12 years.
If he can finish ahead of Flanagan again he will stand a
good chance of picking up the leading amateur award. But his
first goal is to make the halfway cut.
"I'm absolutely determined to make the cut," he
says. "There's only been one British amateur who has
made the cut in the Masters and that's Peter McEvoy, of course."
Twelve years ago Wolstenholme was paired with Arnold Palmer
on the first day. "That was a dream for me," he
adds.
After going to the turn in 33 strokes he found himself at
the top of the leaderboard. Unfortunately, it didn't last.
An opening 72 was highly respectable but the second round
wasn't so rewarding.
"I was caught out when a breeze got up and made the
sort of errors you cannot afford at Augusta," he admits.
He finished with 79 for 151, six strokes over the limit.
There is little doubt that 12 years on Wolstenholme is a
better player. He has, after all, appeared in five Walker
Cup teams, four of them on the winning side.
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