McGOWAN AND RICHARDSON CARRY THE FLAG IN SWITZERLAND
Ross McGowan, winner of the inaugural South of England Strokeplay
Championship at Walton Heath last week, and Edward Richardson,
another 2005 champion, will represent the English Golf Union
in the Swiss Amateur Championship at Golf Club Gerre Losone,
near Ascona, on 5th - 7th August.
McGowan, 23, has been studying economics at the University
of Tennessee for the past four years while also proving economic
on the American collegiate fairways.
A member of the successful Surrey team in the Boys County
Finals in 2000, he reached the last 16 of the English Amateur
Championship at Alwoodley in 2003 before going on to win the
St Mellion International Trophy. Last year he was third in
the Berkshire Trophy, eighth in the Welsh Open Strokeplay
and helped England finish runners-up in the Nations Cup in
the Chiberta Grand Prix in France.
McGowan led almost from start to finish at Walton Heath.
One behind another Surrey man, Matthew Mills, going into the
final round, a closing 74 saw him pip Mills by a shot to win
the Michael Lunt Trophy.
Although Richardson has been playing top level golf for many
years, it is only in recent times that the 37 year old has
become a major force in the UK.
The son of former England Test cricketer Peter Richardson,
Edward is a former South of England Schools champion, who
was at college in the United States between 1987 and 1991.
A joint owner with his brother of the Southern Valley Golf
Club in Kent, he has been a power on the Kent county scene
for the past five years. The pair were members of the Southern
Valley team that won the EGU Champion Club title in 2003,
while Edward has topped the Kent Order of Merit for the past
two years.
In 2004, he finished runner-up in the English County Champions
tournament, won the Kent Championship as well as the Le Touquet
Amateur Championship in France. This year, after qualifying
for the match play stages of the Spanish and Portuguese Amateur
Championships, he won the West of England Strokeplay, finished
tied fourth in the Berkshire Trophy, fifth in the Tillman
Trophy, and 11th in the Brabazon Trophy.
The Swiss Amateur is played over 72 holes stroke play with
a cut after two rounds, the leading 40 players and ties going
through to the final 36 holes. There is also a ladies championship,
both events having a Nations Cup decided over the opening
two rounds.
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