ENGLISH CHAMPION WILLETT ONE OF SEVEN NEW CAPS IN ENGLAND
TEAM
 Daniel
Willett (pictured left - photo courtesy of Tom Ward), newly
crowned English Champion from Rotherham Golf Club, is one
of seven new caps in the England squad for the Home Internationals
being played at County Louth Golf Club in Ireland on 19th
- 21st September.
The other newcomers are Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale),
Ben Evans (Rye), Charlie Ford (Kirby Muxloe), Sam Hutsby (Liphook),
Dale Whitnell (Five Lakes) and Chris Wood (Long Ashton).
Also in the team are Gary Boyd (Cherwell Edge), Matthew Cryer
(Coventry), Ben Parker (Royal Birkdale) and Gary Wolstenholme
(Kilworth Springs).
Willett, 19, who has also been selected for the Walker Cup,
won the English Championship earlier this month by beating
Cryer 3 and 2 in the 36-hole final at Royal St George’s
in Kent. He is the in-form player, having followed up two
wins at college in the United States with the Yorkshire Championship,
a ten-shot win in the South of England Championship at Walton
Heath and the English crown. Willett attends college at Jacksonville,
Alabama.
Baldwin, 21, earns his cap after seven years on the England
scene at under 16 and boys levels. A former winner of the
McGregor Trophy, he was England Boy Captain in 2004 and third
in the Carris Trophy that year. Last year, he won the Formby
Hare, finished third in the Scottish Open Stroke Play and
the Danish Open Amateur and in 2007 reached the semi-finals
of the Portuguese Amateur before winning the Lancashire Championship.
Evans, 20, is another with a long pedigree with England dating
back to 2001. Also capped at under 16 and boys levels, he
won the Sunningdale Foursomes with Danielle Masters last year
and he finished third in the Riverswood Junior Open in Holland
and in the South of England Stroke Play. This year, the Rye
golfer reached the quarter finals of the Spanish Amateur,
was runner-up in the recent South of England Stroke Play,
and has had top-ten finishes in the Berkhamsted and Berkshire
Trophies and in the Welsh Open Stroke Play.
Ford is another US college student, attending the University
of Tennessee at Knoxville. He had three top-ten finishes in
the past collegiate season and was ranked 42nd in the US.
He was also named in the Division One all-Region team for
the South East US by the Golf Coaches Association of America.
At home this year, the Leicestershire 22 year old topped the
individual rankings in the Midland qualifier at Coventry,
finished third in the Midland Open Amateur at Northampton,
finished fourth in the Tillman Trophy and seventh in the St
Andrews Links Trophy.
Hutsby, 18, last year’s England Boy Captain, has also
been capped at under 16 and boys levels. A year ago the Hampshire
youngster pulled off a sensational victory in the Spanish
Amateur, beating the then US Amateur Champion Edoardo Molinari.
In 2006 he also won the Duke of York Young Champions tournament
and was third in the Daily Telegraph Junior Championship.
This year he has won the George Henriques Trophy for the best
score by a GB&I player aged under 20 when he finished
joint fourth in the Brabazon Trophy and recently won the St
Mellion International and the Stoneham Trophy.
Whitnell, 19, has blossomed over the past two years. Highly
successful in Essex with victory in the Under 16 Championship
in 2004 and a double of the county title and boys championship
last year, he finished second in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior
Masters in 2006 after which he was capped for the European
Boys Team Championships and Boys Home Internationals. Third
in the Carris Trophy last year, he won the Daily Telegraph
Junior Championship in Dubai and this year has a string of
high finishes including victory in the North of England Youths,
runner-up in the French Open Stroke Play and the Tillman Trophy
and third in the Russian Amateur.
Wood, 19, has also shone over the last two years. Victories
in his native Gloucestershire and in the South West at junior
level have been followed by the Gloucestershire Championship
last year and a runner-up spot in 2007. Further afield, Wood
finished fifth in the South of England Stroke Play last year
and was a quarter-finalist in the Italian Amateur. In 2007
he has already won the West of England Stroke Play and the
Russian Amateur, finished runner-up in the South West Championship
and the Tillman Trophy and reached the quarter finals of the
Amateur Championship.
Boyd, 20, winner of the inaugural Asia-Pacific Open Amateur
in China last December, made his full England debut in last
year’s Home Internationals in Wales as did 20 year old
Parker, winner of the German Amateur last weekend. Cryer,
32, earned his first full cap in the 2005 Home Internationals,
while Wolstenholme, who will be 47 on 21st August, has been
selected for every Home Internationals since 1988.
Regular caps David Horsey, Jamie Moul, and John Parry were
not considered as they are playing in the Walker Cup and attending
the European Tour Qualifying School, while Paul Waring has
turned professional.
Scotland are the defending champions while England last won
the Home Internationals at Prestwick in 2004.
The full England team is:
Matthew Baldwin (Royal Birkdale)
Gary Boyd (Cherwell Edge)
Matthew Cryer (Coventry)
Ben Evans (Rye)
Charlie Ford (Kirby Muxloe)
Sam Hutsby (Liphook)
Ben Parker (Royal Birkdale)
Dale Whitnell (Five Lakes)
Daniel Willett (Rotherham)
Gary Wolstenholme (Kilworth Springs)
Chris Wood (Long Ashton)
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