The English Golf Union is sending its entire Elite Squad
The English Golf Union is sending its entire Elite Squad
plus James Crampton and Oliver Fisher to compete in the South
African Amateur Championship early next month.
The 13-strong party, arguably the most powerful ever sent
overseas, will contest the championship at Stellenbosch and
De Zalze Golf Clubs on 5th - 11th March.
The full party is: Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale), James
Crampton (Spalding), Matthew Cryer (Coventry), Robert Dinwiddie
(Barnard Castle), Oliver Fisher (West Essex), Adam Gee (Leatherhead),
David Horsey (Styal), Jamie Moul (Stoke by Nayland), John
Parry (Harrogate), Edward Richardson (Southern Valley), James
Ruth (Tavistock), Paul Waring (Bromborough), Gary Wolstenholme
(Kilworth Springs)
Baldwin, Gee and Waring made the same trip a year ago, Gee
finishing joint runner-up in the stroke play before going
out in the quarter finals of the match play.
Five of the party, Fisher, Horsey, Parry, Ruth and Waring,
were members of the England squad that retained the Costa
Ballena title in Spain last month.
 Baldwin
(pictured left - photo courtesy of Tom Ward), who will turn
20 at the end of this month, is a former England under 16
champion and Lancashire champion and England boy captain,
while 33 year old Crampton won the England County Champions
tournament in 2003, the Chiberta Grand Prix the following
year, and made his England debut in the 2005 Home Internationals.
Cryer, 30, who has won many titles in the Midlands, finished
runner-up in the Portuguese Amateur last year and reached
the quarter finals of the English Amateur. He also made his
England debut in last September's Home Internationals.
Dinwiddie, 23, the 2004 Northern Counties champion, won the
Welsh and Scottish Strokeplay Championships in successive
weeks last summer and was a member of the GB&I Walker
Cup team that went to Chicago in August. He has been a full
England international for the past two years.
Fisher, one of the finest talents to emerge in golf in recent
years, was unbeaten in his singles as he became the youngest
ever GB&I Walker Cup player in Chicago, prior to his 17th
birthday in September. He has a string of successes including
the McGregor Trophy, the Duke of York's Champions Trophy and
the Daily Telegraph Junior Championship. He reached the semi-finals
of the Amateur Championship and the English Amateur last year,
was runner-up in the Brabazon Trophy and won the Spirit International
with Moul in America.
Gee, 25, won the Lake Macquarie International last week.
He reached the semi-finals of the Portuguese Amateur in 2004,
made his England debut against France that year and is the
current holder of the Berkshire Trophy.
Horsey, 20, is the current Cheshire champion, was runner-up
in the English Amateur at Hollinwell in 2004, but won the
English Champions Tournament last year by seven strokes after
shooting a closing 64, two shots inside the course record
at Woodhall Spa.
Moul, 21, regained his international spot as well as a place
in the Elite Squad after a disappointing run and celebrated
by helping England win the European title at Hillside last
July. England's joint leading points scorer in last year's
Home Internationals, the former under 16 and boy cap finished
runner-up in the St Andrews Links Trophy and fourth in the
West of England Strokeplay.
Parry, 19, the Yorkshire champion, won the Danish Amateur
Championship last summer to earn an entry to the Vietnam Open
on the Asian Tour in which he played all four rounds. The
former boy international and winner of the McEvoy Trophy,
was also fourth in the inaugural South of England Stroke Play
Championship at Walton Heath and helped Yorkshire win the
English County Championship.
Richardson, 37, who made his England debut in last September's
Home Internationals, earned his elevation after solid performances
on the Kent county scene over the previous five years, topping
the Order of Merit in 2003 and 2004. Last year he won the
West of England Strokeplay Championship.
Ruth, 20, has been capped at all levels over the past five
years. Made his full England debut against France at Sandwich
in 2004 and also played in the Home Internationals. A former
winner of the Berkhamsted Trophy, in 2005 he won the St Mellion
International, finished third in the Berkshire Trophy, represented
England against Spain and in the Home Internationals and reached
the last 16 of the English Amateur.
Waring, 21, endured several months sidelined by injury but
celebrated his recovery by becoming English champion over
his home course at Bromborough last July. He then made his
long overdue full England debut in September's Home Internationals
at Royal St George's. He is a former winner of the McGregor
Trophy and an ex-England boy captain.
Crampton, 33, the Deputy Championship Secretary with the
EGU, was a member of the England Home Internationals team
last September and was also runner up in the Brabazon Trophy
in the same year. Already a winner overseas, he won the Chiberta
Grand Prix in France in 2004, he is four-times Lincolnshire
champion and has won the Berkhamsted Trophy and the County
Champions title.
The week in South Africa begins with the 72-hole stroke play
event after which the leading 32 progress to the match play
championship.
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