LOCKERBIE FACES TOUGH START IN DEFENCE OF ENGLISH CROWN
Gary Lockerbie has been given a tough first round tie when
he starts his defence of the English Amateur Championship
at Hollinwell, Notts, on Monday 26th July.
The England international from Penrith will face Surrey’s
Ryan Harrison at 11.16am, over four hours after Adam Scallon
(Brocket Hall) and Daniel Griggs (Royal Worlington) get the
Championship underway at 7am.
Harrison, who will turn 21 on the 12th of this month, is
gaining a reputation as a giant killer. Lockerbie will need
no reminding that Harrison faced the seeded Sam Osborne in
last year’s first round and went on to produce one of
the shocks with a 2 and 1 victory.
Osborne, the Berkshire Trophy winner, is seeded again and
starts against Mark Underwood from Woodhall Spa.
Lockerbie, 21, won the title a year ago at Alwoodley in Leeds
by beating fellow international Michael Skelton (Middlesbrough)
6 and 5 in the 36-hole final. Skelton, another seed, opens
his quest with a tie against another Surrey entrant, Anthony
Goddard-Mocklow from Effingham.
Apart from Lockerbie, the only other pervious winner competing
is Scott Godfrey, champion in 2001 at Saunton, who gets his
bid underway against Fairhaven’s Nicholas Bamber late
on Monday.
Another England cap, Matthew Richardson, winner of the Brabazon
Trophy, also has a tricky first round match against boy international
James Smith from Kent, while Jamie Moul from Suffolk, who
made his full international debut against France in May, takes
on Ian Parnaby from Durham, a former boy cap.
Arguably the clash of the first day is the meeting of current
England boy captain Matthew Baldwin and the 2002 boy captain
Farren Keenan, while newly-capped James Heath starts against
former boy international Peter Richardson from Cumbria.
The 2001 Brabazon Trophy winner and England international
Richard Walker tackles Will Kendall from Moor Park, while
an early starter when the opening round ventures into Tuesday
the 27th will be former boy captain Paul Waring.
The Cheshire golfer takes on Leicestershire’s Jason
Palmer in the fourth match off, while an hour later Ross Fisher
tees off against Lancashire’s Ben Howlett.
Lee Corfield, runner-up in the Amateur Championship at St
Andrews last month, starts his bid against James Freeman from
Retford.
Gary Wolstenholme is the last of the 16 seeds in action when
he takes on James Hallam from Newark in one of the final first
round ties. England’s most capped international has
won two Amateur Championships but has yet to win the English
title.
Now 43, Wolstenholme is keen to follow in the footsteps of
his late father Guy who was English champion in 1956 and ’59.
The Championship, which runs from Monday 26 July to Saturday
31 July, also throws up a number of intriguing clashes, not
least the meeting of former England cap Charlie Banks, now
49, and teenager John Parry, winner of the McEvoy Trophy in
April.
Stephen Cox, head of tournaments with the PGA at The Belfry,
has an early tie against Hertfordshire’s James Ruebotham,
while former professional Keith Waters, currently an executive
with the European Tour and a reinstated amateur, takes on
Danny Brooker from Lambourne.
This will be the fourth occasion the Championship has been
staged at Hollinwell, one of the finest inland courses in
the country, which has hosted a number of other top tournaments.
The first English Amateur was played there in 1935 when Jack
Woollam emerged triumphant but it was another 29 years before
the Championship returned when Dr David Marsh, a Past President
of the EGU and now chairman of the Junior Committee, beat
Rodney Foster.
On the last occasion Hollinwell played host, in 1996, Shaun
Webster came out on top against local hope Denny Lucas.
A total of 256 players will line up for the first round.
Play starts at 7am on Monday 26 July and the Championship
reaches its climax on Saturday 31st July when the final will
be staged over 36 holes.
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