WORLD NO.1 WILLETT WINS IN AUSTRALIA
 English
champion Daniel Willett (pictured - photo courtesy of Tom
Ward) collected his second overseas title in a matter of weeks
when he won the Australian Amateur Stroke Play Championship
at Royal Adelaide Golf Club.
A closing round of 70 for 285, six under par, left the Yorkshire
man a shot ahead of Australian pair Josh Younger and Grant
Scott and cemented his position as Number One on the World
Amateur Rankings.
Willett, 20, won the Spanish Amateur title last month, a
success that followed his victories last year in the South
of England Stroke Play and the English Amateur and prompted
his England debut in the Home Internationals and the Walker
Cup.
In Adelaide, Willett, who is based at Rotherham Golf Club,
opened with 73 which left him down the field. But he improved
every day with a pair of 71s which left him in second spot,
four strokes behind Younger going into the final round.
Birdies at the first and third holes saw him close the gap
until he was rocked back on his heels with bogeys at the seventh
and eighth.
At the same time, Younger couldn’t find a birdie in
his opening eight holes. In fact he had just two pars along
with a string of bogeys. He made amends with a three under
par back nine for 75 but with Willett coming home in two under
it wasn’t enough to prevent him from becoming the first
Englishman to lift the title.
At one stage, Scott became Willett’s biggest threat.
He birdied all four of the back nine par-fours in a fine four-under-par
69, but having started six shots back he also came up short
of Willett.
Dale Whitnell (Five Lakes Golf Club, Essex), closed with
73 for 291, level par, and equal sixth place along with fellow
England cap Chris Wood from Long Ashton Golf Club, Gloucestershire,
who carded a final 74.
Neil Chaudhuri (The Leicestershire Golf Club) returned a
splendid closing 69 for equal 20th on 295 with Matthew Baldwin
(Royal Birkdale) two strokes further back.
As the top seed, Willett now goes forward to seek the match
play crown over the next three days at Royal Adelaide with
Whitnell, Wood, Chaudhuri and Baldwin also qualifying.
Leading final scores
285 D Willett (Eng) 73 71 71 70
286 J Younger (Victoria) 68 73 70 75
286 G Scott (New South Wales) 73 72 72 69
288 B Smith (New South Wales) 76 70 71 71
290 M Jager (Western Aust) 73 72 73 72
Other scores:
291 D Whitnell (Eng) 69 73 76 73
291 C Wood (Eng) 72 71 74 74
295 N Chaudhuri (Eng) 70 80 76 69
297 M Baldwin (Eng) 75 72 74 76
298 S Uzzell (Eng) 73 77 71 77
299 S Hutsby (Eng) 72 77 75 75
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