www.globalgolfpost.com
APRIL 30, 2012
B English amateur circuit after four years
at Nova Southeastern University in the
United States, knew he needed a good
performance at the Hampshire Hog as he
trailed Fitzpatrick by five after the
Selborne Salver at Blackmoor the previous day, and delivered in style by birdieing the opening five holes at North Hants.
“I wanted to make a fast start
because of the world amateur ranking
points at stake and it was a very, very
nice start,” said Bartlett. “I’ve now got
two wins under my belt and that’s a
good way to get the season going.”
second-place finish in the concur-
rent team event. Unfortunately, the
second member of the English team,
Greg Payne, from Chobham, did not
perform quite as well as he did while
teaming up with Jessica Wilcox to win
the recent Sunningdale Foursomes. He
posted rounds of 74, 72, 72 and 79 to
leave England trailing 15 shots behind
the runaway Peruvian duo of Alzamora
and Jean Peglau, both of whom are
members of the club where the con-
test was played.
Holly Aitchison and Charlotte Ellis, in
what is one of the few events in which
amateurs are able to compete against
the professionals. Another amateur,
Emilee Taylor (Holme Hall) shared
fourth place with professionals Henni
Zuel and Sophie Walker.
Hall went on to say she was disappointed only to be named as reserve
for the forthcoming Curtis Cup match
against the Americans. “I still believed I
had done enough to make the team but
all I can do is keeping playing well and
win as much as I can,” she said.
Shinkwin was by no means the only
Hertfordshire player to have made
his mark during the course of the last
week. While Shinkwin was winning the
Hampshire Hog, his county colleague
Jamie Rutherford, from Knebworth
Golf Club, was travelling to Peru, where
he finished second behind local player
Patricio Alzamora in the race for the
individual title in the Lima International
at Lima Golf Club.
Rutherford put together rounds of
72, 70, 65 and 69 and his fine performance also helped England to a
Georgia Hall, who was recently
named as reserve for the forthcoming
Curtis Cup, might be causing the selectors to question their judgement after
producing a trio of impressive performances over the last few weeks.
Hall, from Remedy Oaks, a past winner of both the English Girls’ Under- 13
and under- 15 titles, made her first mark
when she battled through to the semi-fi-nals of the recent French Under- 21 Girls’
Championship, eventually losing out by
3& 2 to eventual winner Celine Boutier.
Subsequently, she put together
rounds of 75 and 69 to share the Hampshire Rose, played at North Hants,
with fellow English international Nikki
Forster, from Pleasington, and then collected her second piece of silverware in
the space of a few days by becoming the
youngest-ever winner of the Roehamp-ton Gold Cup, just days after celebrating
her 16th birthday.
On that occasion, Hall produced
two level-par rounds of 72 to finish
three shots ahead of two professionals,
Fraser McKenna has been the man
to beat during the early weeks of the
Scottish amateur season. McKenna won
the traditional curtain raiser, the Scottish Champion of Champions tournament
at Leven, and then followed that up with
a second victory in the Battle Trophy at
Crail, the second event on this year’s
men’s Order of Merit. Incidentally, he
might not be a bad bet for the Lytham
Trophy because last year he finished
sixth, just six shots behind Senior.
The 21-year-old from Balmore puts
his fast start to the season down to work
he was able to do both as a member
of the 10-man Scottish squad which
visited Yas Links in Abu Dhabi just before
Christmas and then the seven-man
national squad which travelled to South
Africa just after the turn of the year.
“The warm-weather training has
definitely helped a lot, working on my
swing in Abu Dhabi and then taking it
into South Africa,” he said. “Playing
competitively was really good in South
Africa and it helped me a lot. I’ve been
playing nicely.”
McKenna is one of a number of Scots
who will be chasing a spot on the GB&I
team at the Eisenhower Trophy in Turkey
from October 4-7, and he would love to
consolidate his place at the top of the
Scottish Order of Merit.
David Booth and Graeme Robertson have been named in the European
students team to face their American
counterparts in the 2012 Palmer Cup at
Royal Co. Down Golf Club on June 28-30.
The Stirling pair will be joined by
Frenchman Brun, Denmark’s Sebastian
Cappelen, Belgian Thomas Pieters,
Dutchman Daan Huizing and the Swedish pair of Robert Karlsson and Pontus
Widegren, all of whom are at college in
the States.
Cappelen, Karlsson and Widegren
all played in last year’s Palmer Cup
at the Stanwich Club, while Karlsson
and Huizing both represented Europe
in last week’s Sir Michael Bonallack
Trophy in Portugal.
Brun is the first French player to be
selected for the transatlantic contest
while Pieters is the first Belgian. The US
currently leads the Palmer Cup series
by 8-6-1 and will be bidding for a hat
trick of successive victories in Ireland.
Previous US Palmer Cup players
include the likes of Ben Curtis, Rickie
Fowler, Dustin Johnston, Matt Kuchar,
Hunter Mahan, Webb Simpson and Nick
Watney. Rhys Davies, Luke Donald,
Michael Hoey, Peter Lawrie, Pablo Martin,
Gareth Maybin, Graeme McDowell and
Francesco Molinari have all represented
the European team.
Booth and Robertson will both
have a busy summer as they have also
been selected to represent GB&I in
the World Universities’ Championship
to be played at Liberec in the Czech
Republic on July 2-7.
It is indicative of the stranglehold
Stirling exerts over student golf on this
side of the Atlantic that no fewer than
five of their players will fill the seven
spots in the men’s and women’s teams
for that event.
The selection of Jack McDonald
brings to three the number of Stirling
representatives in the men’s side with
the team being rounded out by Ben
Stow from Plymouth. The women’s team
comprises the Stirling duo of Hannah
McCook and Eilidh Briggs plus York’s
Charlotte Austwick. l
