REVENGE TASTES SWEET FOR WOLSTENHOLME
 Gary
Wolstenholme (pictured left - photo courtesy of Tom Ward)
has won the New South Wales Amateur Championship at Terrey
Hills Golf Club near Sydney, just a year after losing in the
final of the same tournament.
In the 36-hole final, England’s most capped international
beat current Australian Amateur champion Tim Stewart 2 and
1.
Throughout the five days of the championship Wolstenholme
underlined just how difficult he is to beat in head-to-head
competition, especially when his opponent edges in front.
Stewart gained an early lead and kept it in the morning round
as the rivals parried with birdies and pars to have only one
hole between them, except for once, before the interval.
Both players took part in a brief lunch with former winners
of the NSW Amateur and some of the nostalgia must have rubbed
off on Wolstenholme as he started the afternoon birdie-par-par-birdie-birdie
to turn that halfway deficit of one down into a three-up lead
by the sixth (24th) hole.
From then on Stewart was playing catch up, which he did well
to get back to one-down by the 34th hole.
However, the end came at the next when Stewart bravely attacked
the pin and all but made it only for his ball to trickle off
the green into an unplayable lie. When Wolstenholme rolled
his 50-foot putt to within inches, Stewart graciously conceded.
A year ago in the final, Wolstenholme went down at the 37th
hole to Australia’s Won Joon Lee, having finished runner-up
to the same player in the New South Wales Medal a few days
earlier.
So this time the feeling must have been sweet and it means
2007 has began well for the Leicestershire man following the
award of an MBE in the New Year Honours List.
On his way to the final, Wolstenholme had comparatively comfortable
victories. His toughest test came from fellow England international
Matt Cryer in a quarter final clash that went to the 38th
hole.
Five England players qualified in the leading 32 from the
Medal, which was won by Stephen Lewton. However, the Woburn
man went out in the first round as did Jason Palmer and David
Horsey. Cryer needed 37 holes to get through each of the first
two rounds before that epic quarter final clash with Wolstenholme.
Wolstenholme's victory means that English players have collected
three of the four titles they have contested so far down under
following Lewton’s success in the Avondale Medal and
the New South Wales Medal.
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