WOLSTENHOLME SEEKS FIFTH SHERRY CUP SUCCESS
Gary Wolstenholme has the chance of adding to his already
impressive list of successes in the Sherry Cup when he defends
the title at Royal Sotogrande Golf Club in Spain on 29th March
- 1st April.
The EGU has named Wolstenholme in a strong four-man team that
will also be bidding to regain the Nations Cup won in 2004
but which had to settle for third place last year behind winners
Spain. This year’s team, all members of England’s
Elite Squad, will comprise Robert Dinwiddie (Barnard Castle),
Oliver Fisher (West Essex), Jamie Moul (Stoke by Nayland)
and Wolstenholme (Kilworth Springs).
Wolstenholme has a wonderful record in the Sherry Cup. He
won the individual title in 2000, 2001, 2003 and last year,
but missed the event in 2004 as he was competing in the United
States.
The 45 year old from Leicestershire has already come close
this year to adding to his ever-increasing array of victories
worldwide, having finished runner-up in the New South Wales
Medal and New South Wales Amateur in Australia. England’s
most capped player has lost none of his appetite and enthusiasm
for competition at the highest level of the amateur game and
is sure to be targeting the major titles again this summer.
Durham-based Dinwiddie, 23, enjoyed a highly successful 2005
including his Walker Cup debut in Chicago last August. This
followed victories in the Scottish and Welsh Open Strokeplay
Championships in successive weeks and he rounded off the year
by winning the individual title in the Simon Bolivar Cup in
Caracas, Venezuela. A former Durham boy champion, under 16
cap, and the 2004 Northern Counties champion, Dinwiddie also
played in the Home Internationals having graduated from Tennessee
State University where he enjoyed considerable success.
Fisher also made his Walker Cup debut in Chicago being, at
16, the youngest player ever to represent GB&I in the
event. One of the finest prospects to emerge in recent times,
Fisher, now 17, has achieved a string of successes in the
past two years. Capped at under 16 and boys levels, he was
a member of the team that won the European Boys Team Championship
in Finland in 2004 and was runner-up in the R&A Junior
Championship and represented Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup
the same year.
Last year, Fisher finished runner-up in the Brabazon Trophy,
reached the semi-finals of the Amateur and English Amateur
Championships, represented England in the World Boys Team
Championships in Japan and helped England triumph in the European
Men‘s Team Championship at Hillside.
Moul, 21, was capped for the first time against France at
Royal St George’s in 2004, and after being a reserve
for two successive Home Internationals he was recalled for
the international with Spain last April and was a member of
the triumphant England team that took the European Men‘s
Team Championship in July 2005.
Also last year, he played in the 2005 Home Internationals
and was a reserve for the Walker Cup. Playing alongside Fisher
and two representatives from the England Ladies team, Moul
won the Spirit International in America last autumn. This
year he has already competed in Australia and is currently
in South Africa with the rest of the England Elite Squad.
The Sherry Cup is competed for over 72 holes with the best
three cards each day counting towards the team event. The
individual competition runs simultaneously with the Nations
Championship, the champion collecting a Gold Sherry Wine Trophy
and the Amateur Masters Jacket. If the Championship ends in
a tie, the teams involved will nominate one player to compete
in a sudden death play-off.
Apart from Wolstenholme, other winners of this prestigious
event include Padraig Harrington (1991), and Sergio Garcia
(1997 and 1998).
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