HEATH LEADS BID FOR EUROPEAN AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP
Ten players from the Lottery funded EGU World Class Performance
Programme, including newly crowned English Champion James
Heath, are in the official England squad to contest the International
European Amateur Championship at Skövde Golf Club in
Sweden on 18-21 August who will seek to end a 13 year run
without an English victory in the event.
The party mostly from the Elite squad includes several Walker
Cup squad members and seven players selected to represent
England in next month’s Home Internationals at Prestwick.
The full group is: Lee Corfield, Lawrence Dodd, James Heath,
Gary Lockerbie, Jamie Moul, Matthew Richardson, Martin Sell,
Michael Skelton, Paul Waring, and Richard Walker.
Heath is enjoying a highly successful season, having won
the Lytham Trophy before securing the English title at Hollinwell
Golf Club, Notts when he beat David Horsey 3 and 2 in the
final.
The 21 year old from Surrey, who made his full England debut
in last year’s Home Internationals in Ireland, finished
runner-up in the European Championship when it was held in
Portugal in 2002.
Corfield, 21 from Somerset, who also played in the European
in Portugal, has been a winner this year in the West of England
Stroke Play and finished runner-up in the Amateur Championship
at St Andrews.
Dodd, 20, from Suffolk, reached the quarter-finals of the
English Amateur Championship at Hollinwell before losing to
Wolstenholme. He finished runner-up to Corfield in the West
of England this year, was a member of England’s victorious
Nations Cup team in the recent Peugeot Classic in France,
and took second spot in the individual event.
After a successful 2003 in which he became English Champion,
Cumbria-based Lockerbie, 21, has represented England across
the world, visiting South Africa, Australia, Spain and the
United States. He finished sixth in the Brabazon Trophy and
seventh in the Scottish Stroke Play.
Another Suffolk player, Moul, 19, made his full England debut
against France at Royal St George’s in May having been
reserve for last year’s Home Internationals in Ireland.
He has also seen overseas action this year in South Africa,
Puerto Rico, Spain and the United States and is reserve again
for next month’s Home Internationals in Scotland.
Richardson, 19, from Middlesex, crowned a fine career when
he won the Brabazon Trophy at West Lancs in May. He has reached
the quarter-finals of the Spanish Amateur for the past two
years and made his full England debut against the Spanish
at Lindrick last year.
Sell, 25, finished runner-up in the 2002 Amateur Championship
in Wales and reached the third round for the past two years.
He made his full England debut against Spain at Lindrick last
year and reached the third round of the English Amateur.
After being beaten in the English final by Lockerbie last
year at Alwoodley, Skelton, 20, from Yorkshire, became the
youngest member of the Walker Cup team that beat the United
States at Ganton, before making his full England debut in
the Home Internationals at Ballybunion.
Also last year, he won the Welsh Stroke Play Championship
and together with Lockerbie, won the Juan Carlos Tailhade
Cup in Argentina and was a member of the Sherry Cup winning
side this Spring. He also played against the French at Royal
St George’s in May.
Waring, 19, from Cheshire, was last year’s England
Boy captain and led his team to victory in the Boys Home Internationals.
He played in the World Boys Team Championships in Japan as
well as the European Boys Team Championships, and for GB&I
in the Jacques Leglise Trophy.
This year he has finished runner-up in the Duncan Putter
in Wales and third in the West of England Championship. He
also won the Peugeot Classic in France and was a member of
the Nations Cup-winning team.
Walker, 33, from Lancashire, is a former winner of the Brabazon
Trophy and the German and Portuguese Amateur titles. A member
of the winning team in this year’s Sherry Cup in Spain,
he has been an England International since 2001 but has not
been selected for the Home Internationals as he is attending
the European Tour Qualifying School.
The last English player to win the European title was Jim
Payne who triumphed at Hillside in 1991.
The full party for Sweden is: Lee Corfield (Burnham &
Berrow), Lawrence Dodd (Thetford), James Heath (Coombe Wood),
Gary Lockerbie (Penrith), Jamie Moul (Stoke-by-Nayland), Matthew
Richardson (The Buckinghamshire), Martin Sell (Wrag Barn),
Michael Skelton (Middlesbrough), Paul Waring (Bromborough),
and Richard Walker (Frodsham).
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