English Amateur: Internationals Boyd and Moul make early
exits
 There
were shocks aplenty when the English Amateur Championship
entered the match play stage at Royal St George’s with
internationals Gary Boyd and Jamie Moul being early casualties.
Both players are Walker Cup candidates but Boyd went down
at the 19th to Michael Moore while an off-colour Moul was
demolished 5 and 3 by Dale Marmion (picture © Tom Ward).
Boyd had showed tremendous form in finishing top of the qualifiers
with a record-equalling 64 at Royal Cinque Ports and he didn’t
do much wrong against Moore. But the Cheshire man matched
him blow-for-blow and drained a 40-footer for birdie to win
on the 19th. Moore had stated his intentions with birdies
at the second and third holes to go 2up. However, Boyd got
back on terms and they were still level at the 15th before
Boyd went ahead with a par at the short 16th.
He was still ahead on the 18th tee but after being bunkered
off the tee, Boyd just avoided going out of bounds behind
the green and could do no better than a bogey five to lose
the hole to a par. Then when they visited the first for the
second time, Moore delivered the fatal blow with that 40-footer
for a birdie three.
Moore, back from college in Florida, said: “I’ve
been struggling with my driving all week and I just hung in
there. It wasn’t a pretty match but this was a big win
for me. I was virtually scrambling my way around but I had
belief in myself,” he added before departing for the
range to put his driving right.
The curse of the leading qualifier clearly hit Boyd. “I
felt I was hit by a bus over the first three holes and this
is a big disappointment with the Walker Cup team being picked
at the end of the week,” he said. “This sort of
thing seems to keep happening to me. I was one-up with two
to play against Tim Sewart in the British and he birdied the
last two and in this event two years ago Steven Capper won
the last two to beat me. But at least I didn’t give
it away.”
Marmion, who is enjoying a successful year with top-ten finishes
in four key event, was also fast out of the blocks against
Moul. He won two of the first three holes while a second birdie
at the seventh put him 3up. Although Moul won the eighth,
Marmion took the ninth tenth and 12th to go 5up, several with
pars. Moul took the 14th with a birdie, but the end came with
a Marmion par at 15.
“Jamie was struggling a bit and a little out of sorts,”
said Marmion. “Although I was five over around here
in the qualifying I still felt confident and was happy to
be playing Jamie. You want to play the best and he is and
you’ve got to prove yourself against players of his
calibre.”
Yorkshire’s John Parry made short work of fellow international
Ed Richardson, winning 7 and 5, but former boy cap Dale Whitnell,
2-up through 13 holes, was taken to the 18th green before
edging past Shaun Malone.
In an all-teenage tussle, Tom Lewis got the better of last
year’s England boy captain Sam Hutsby by 2 and 1. "Neither
of us played very well. We were both over par at the end but
as long as you shoot level par around here you shouldn‘t
be too far away,” said Lewis.
In fact, there was nothing to choose between the pair through
ten holes but Lewis won the 11th with a par and the 12th with
birdie to go 2up and although Hutsby took the 14th with a
birdie-four, Lewis bounced back with a par at 15 and shared
the next two for victory. “We both had chances at 16
and 17 but neither of us took them,” Lewis added. “At
17, Sam’s putt lipped out which was fortunate for me.”
Daniel Willett, the Yorkshire champion and now one of the
favourites after Boyd and Moul’s defeats, marched on
with a 3 and 2 win over Jarrad McKnight.
But Stephen Capper, beaten finalist in 2005, a last green
winner over 14 year old Oscar Sharpe in the preliminary round
this morning, was on the wrong end of a 6 and 5 scoreline
against Ben Rickett, another US college student.
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