YOUNG TRIO CAN EXTEND ENGLISH SUCCESSES IN GREECE
David Horsey (Styal), runner-up in this year’s English
Amateur Championship, is one of three teenagers who will represent
England in the 72-hole Greek Amateur Championship in Athens
later this month.
He will be accompanied by Christopher Evans (Maxstoke Park)
and Grant Slater (Carlyon Bay) at the Glyfada Golf Club from
23rd to 26th September.
Horsey and Evans, both 19, were in top form in the English
Amateur at Hollinwell, claiming the scalps of top seeds during
the week.
Horsey, from Wilmslow, advanced almost un-noticed until he
put out one of the favourites, England International and Brabazon
Trophy winner Matthew Richardson in the fourth round, the
Cheshire lad winning at the 19th hole.
Evans, from Castle Bromwich, was equally unobtrusive until
he eliminated another England cap, Sam Osborne in round five
in another battle that went to extra holes. Evans was dormie
three but Osborne battled back to take the tie to the 20th
hole where Evans won through.
Horsey and Evans then clashed in the quarter finals with
Horsey victorious by two holes before advancing to meet another
International, James Heath from Surrey in the 36-hole final.
That looked like being a one-sided affair as Heath won the
first five holes, but Horsey, a regular in the Cheshire side,
bravely battled back to eventually succumb 3 and 2.
Evans is a regular in the Warwickshire county side and finished
joint first in the individual in the EGU Midland Group Qualifying
at Woodhall Spa in June.
Slater, 18, from the Carlyon Bay club in Cornwall, a former
South West Boys and Schools champion, has also been capped
at under 16 level before making his debut at boys level in
last year’s Boys Home Internationals.
This followed his joint first place in the Carris Trophy
at Burnham & Berrow, while he also represented England
in the Turkish Amateur. After playing against Sweden in the
Boys International at Hunstanton earlier this year, Slater
made a solid defence of the Carris Trophy at Northumberland,
finishing equal ninth. He was also a member of the England
team that successfully defended the Boys Home Internationals
title at Portmarnock last month and helped Cornwall finish
third behind Essex and Yorkshire in the recent Boys County
Finals at Broadstone.
The Greek Amateur has been a happy hunting ground for English
golfers, the title being brought home for the past two years.
Heath won in 2003, while Lawrence Dodd finished first a year
ago ahead of fellow international and Suffolk team mate Jamie
Moul, the runner-up. Together with Eddie Vernon from Derbyshire,
who was seventh, they won the Nations Cup. England successes
go back even further. Yorkshire’s John Wells won the
individual title in 1998, while Ben Welch, Andrew Paisley
and Simon Young won the Nations Cup in 2000, Welch and Young
finishing second and third in the individual.
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