The 22-year-old, who claimed victory at Royal County Down last year, is aiming to become the first player since Sweden’s Louise Stahle to retain the championship, back in 2005.

Having progressed on the cut mark during qualifying, Toy found her form in the matchplay stages to continue her quest for a historic success at the spectacular North-West links.

In the championship’s 117th staging, Toy saw off the challenge of Roehampton’s Isabelle Simpson.

Her one-hole win in the morning, was followed by a comfortable 5&4 triumph over Ireland’s Jessica Ross.

Toy said: “I’m trying not to give up the title. Obviously, making the cut on the mark was a relief and coming through two rounds I’m pleased to be where I am.

“It was a really good match this morning and I was pleased to get the win,” added the Carlyon Bay member.

“This afternoon I played nicely again. I have been struggling a little bit with form coming into this event. So it has been nice to actually see some nice shots.

“At the start of the week, in my eyes, the trophy was out there for anyone to win.

“I’m just coming to an event trying to win like everyone else. If I can keep doing the right things and if that is good enough at the end of the week then great.

It’s my first time here and I’m really enjoying it,” said Toy, who missed out on the chance to play at Augusta in April because of the COVID-19 crisis, which saw the second ever Augusta National Women’s Amateur cancelled along with the Masters.

Is Price right for Emily’s double?

LUDLOW’S in-form Emily Price, who won the English Women’s Amateur Championship earlier this month, maintained her bid for more glory.

She beat Iceland’s Hulda Clara Gestsdottir 2&1 to reach the last-16 where she will face Lithunia’s Gilė Bitė Starkutė.

Denmark’s Amalie Leth-Nissen – who was the leading qualifier on countback – lost out to her older sister, Cecilie, at the final hole in an emotional contest in the opening tie of the day.

It was a notable triumph, given Cecilie is ranked 765th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking compared to Amalie who sits at 47th.

However, Scotland’s Hannah Darling, the Girls’ Under 16 Open Champion in 2018, then ended the hopes of Leth-Nissen in the afternoon with a one-hole victory.

Seventeen-year-old Darling said: “It feels good to reach the last-16. I was just solid out there today.

“In both matches I think I was two-down after three. So I’m just really proud of how I ground it out and stuck in there.

“It’s the type of golf course where anything can happen. I wouldn’t say it is a course you can go low on. You have to grind it out and scramble.

“I heard Cecilie had a close game in the morning with her sister. I’m friends with them both, and it was then nice to have a good match against her too.

“It’s my first time in the Women’s Amateur. But it’s matchplay and I’ve done well in those events in the past. So I just have to keep it going.

“I’m probably younger than most people out there. But as my dad says, age has nothing to do it with it, and it’s about performing,”said the Broomienknowe teenager.

Florida’s Fuller still in as German marches on

ROEHAMPTON’S newly crowned English Strokeplay champion Annabell Fuller is also in the last-16.

The University of Florida ace first beat Royal Cromer’s fellow England international Amelia Williamson 2&1, and St Mellion’s Megan Giles 5&4 in the second round.

Of the other leading qualifiers, Whitley Bay’s Rosie Belsham lost to Annabel Bailey, from Leicestershire’s Kirby Muxloe by one hole.

Bailey was then knocked out by Kent’s Shama Dutrieux at the 23rd hole.

Italian Alessia Nobilio, the World No. 5, quietly went about her work to reach the last 16. Meanwhile two German players – Paula Schulz-Hanssen and Aline Krauter – also progressed.

Schulz-Hanssen, who has already won the Swiss Amateur title this year, was delighted with her progress.

She said: “I’m happy to be in the last-16. I played pretty good today.

“I played 32 holes in the two matches and I had 12 birdies and only four bogeys. It is tough playing 36 holes in the one day.

“I was level par for the strokeplay qualifying, but today was even better,” said last year’s European Young Masters winner.

“The course is so beautiful to play, so amazing. There are so many holes where you can really attack the flag.

“If you hit good shots, you can get good results. It’s my first time playing in the event and I’m playing well,” said Schulz-Hanssen, a member of Europe’s 2019 Solheim Junior Cup team.

Humphreys waiting for putts to drop

ESSEX’S Lily May Humphreys, the highest-ranked English player in the field, now faces Schulz-Hanssen in Friday’s showdown.

The Stoke-by-Nayland player who was runner-up to Price at Woodhall Spa, said: “It feels really good. It’s my best so far in this championship.

“I haven’t done that great in it before. Hopefully I can carry on through tomorrow to the semi-finals,” added Humphreys, who won the Irish and Welsh Strokeplay titles last year.

“I feel like I played solid today, tee-to-green – just didn’t hole a massive amount of putts,” Lily May added.

“It was less breezy out there today. A little drizzle in the afternoon, but the conditions were better.”

Meanwhile Italian Carolina Melgrati also exited at the 19th to Wales’ Ffion Tynan.

Tynan continued her form as she defeated Berkshire’s Irish international Laura Webb, the oldest player in the field at 57, with a 2&1 victory against the East Berkshire veteran.

Webb was named captain of Ireland’s national team for 2020 and won the Irish Seniors championship in 2019.

That win completed the first-ever Irish Ladies slam by winning the Girls, Women’s and Over 50s titles during her career.

West Lancashire’s Hollie left to Muse after defeat

THERE was disappointment however for West Lancashire’s Hollie Muse and Scotland’s Hazel MacGarvie, who were knocked out at the last-64 stage.

The other England players still in the hat are Carus Green’s Caitlin Whithead after her wins over Scot Lorna McClymont, from Milngavie, by 4&3 – and last year’s English Amateur Champion Ellen Hume, from Mill Green, in Hertfordshire, by 4&2.

Fourteen-year-old Chiara Noja, who was born in Germany and raised in the UK, faces another teenager in Nobillo.

The latter is the current Italian and Portuguese Amateur Stokeplay Champion.

Dutrieux, from Wrotham Heath, will play another Italian in the shape of Emilie Paltrinieri, last year’s German Girls Champion, after her win at the fifth extra hole.

The matchplay continues, with the last-16 and quarter-final ties played, ahead of Saturday’s semi-finals and the 18-hole final.

There are significant rewards for the champion with exemptions into the AIG Women’s Open and traditionally, the US Women’s Open, The Evian Championship and Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship.

•Follow live scoring at RandA.org as well as on The R&A’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

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The 61st Berkhamsted Trophy, which attracted a record entry after it was opened up to female and male golfers, has been postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Picture by ANDY HISEMAN / MAGIC HOUR MEDIA

BERKHAMSTED Golf Club has confirmed the postponement of the 61^st Berkhamsted Trophy because of the coronavirus outbreak.

But the Hertfordshire heatthland club – famous for having no bunkers – plans to stage the ground-breaking event for sexual equality later this year.

The 72-hole tournament was set to be the world’s first national-level elite amateur golf event open to both males and females, from April 2-4.

Following the club’s announcement in January that golfers from both sexes would be able to compete equally, this year’s event had already attracted an all-time record entry.

Among the 142 competitors who have entered the 2020 tournament are 18 leading women golfers – led by last week’s Sunningdale Foursomes winner Lily-May Humphries, from Essex, Cheshire’s England international Isobel Wardle, and Emily Toy, the reigning Women’s Amateur Champion. from Cornwall.

All three are members of the Curtis Cup squad for the biennial match, between Great Britain and Ireland and the USA, which is due to be played at Conwy GC, in North Wales, from June 12-14.

The Hertfordshire club is looking to re-schedule the 61^st Berkhamsted Trophy in the autumn 2020. Further announcements will follow. Entrants need to do nothing at this stage.

The Berkhamsted Trophy. Picture by ANDY HISEMAN

Berkhamsted manager Howard Craft said: “Naturally we would rather not be doing this, but it is clearly unwise to attempt to stage a golf tournament of this kind at the moment.

“The health of our competitors, members and staff is the overwhelming priority right now.

“Our decision in January to invite leading female amateur golfers to enter the tournament has been emphatically validated by the record-breaking entry levels, and also by the high quality of the golfers who want to compete – of both sexes.

“What’s been achieved so far is testament both to the appeal of the Berkhamsted Trophy, and also to the growing desire to stage truly gender-neutral tournaments across the golfing world.

“We are proud to be among those who are leading the way in this area, and we are still excited to see what happens when the best female golfers take on the best male golfers, later this year, all competing for the same trophy.”

Great Britain & Ireland Curtis Cup captain Elaine Ratcliffe said: “Berkhamsted has clearly taken the right decision to postpone for now, but more importantly, I think it’s brilliant the event received such enthusiastic backing from both male and female competitors.

“It’s another step in the right direction not just for golf, but for sport in general,” said Ratcliffe, the former Ladies European Tour player, who played in the 1996 Curtis Cup at Killarney, and also for GB&I at the 1998 World Amateur Team Championship for the Espirito Trophy.

“They are all athletes at the end of the day, and we are gradually removing those dividing lines between men’s and women’s sport.”

The 2019 Berkhamsted Trophy was won by Ryan Gosling, from Harpenden GC.

Past winners include Sandy Lyle, Luke Donald, Andy Sullivan, Tom Lewis, Graeme Storm, and Jack Singh-Brar, who have all gone on to play on the European Tour, plus amateur legend Gary Wolstenholme.

•Berkhamsted’s golf course remains open to its members after the Government’s Chief Scientific Officer Sir Patrick Vallance told the Commons Health Committee this week that playing golf was relatively safe during the restrictions on social isolation advised after the COVID-19 outbreak continued to spread across the UK this week.

Berkhamsted Golf Club general manager Howard Craft. Picture by ANDY HISEMAN

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Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley announced the 2020 Masters had been cancelled in response to the coronavirus pandemic, on Friday afternoon

NEXT month’s Masters at Augusta National has been postponed because of the growing threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

The 84th editon of the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club, was due to start on April 9 – with the players making the famous drive down Mangolia Lane the weekend before.

But one of golf’s most hallowed venues, which normally attracts daily crowds of 40,000 will stay silent as the pine straw remains untouched by players’ and spectators’ feet – for now.

And the blazing colour of Augusta’s azaleas and rhododendrons in the Georgia spring sunshine will not be filling golf fans’ TV screens around the world… and Tiger Woods will not get to place the fabled Green Jacket around the shoulders of the new champion… well not in the second week of April.

In a specially-prepared statement the organisers at ANGC stated that The Masters was being postponed “at this time” – without offering any definite prospect of the event being held later in the year.

The cancellation also applies to the second-ever Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the children’s Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals, which are held in the build-up to Masters week.

Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement on Friday: “The health and well-being of everyone associated with these events and the citizens of the Augusta community led us to this decision.”

“Considering the latest information and expert analysis, we have decided at this time to postpone the Masters Tournament, the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals,” Ridley added on Friday afternoon.

“Unfortunately, the ever-increasing risks associated with the widespread coronavirus have led us to a decision that undoubtedly will be disappointing to many – although I am confident is appropriate under these unique circumstances.

“As coronavirus continues to impact the lives of people everywhere, we seek your understanding of this decision and know you share our concern given these trying times.

“We will continue to work with the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Office of the Governor, the Georgia Department of Public Health, the City of Augusta and all other local authorities.

“We are grateful to all of these entities for their exceptional efforts and guidance.”

It will be the first time the Masters has been postponed since World War Two, which resulted in the tournament not taking place in 1943, 1945 and 1946.

Tiger Woods’ famous victory 11 months ago was one of the greatest Masters of all time and the former World No. 1 missed this week’s Players’ Championship in a race to get fit for Augusta after the winner of five Green Jackets hurt his back.

Four English players were due to tee it up in the second Augusta National Women’s Amateur – Women’s Amateur Champion Emily Toy, from West Cornwall, Roehampton’s Annabell Fuller, Essex’s Lily May Humphrey, and Cheshire’s Isobel Wardle.

Berkhamsted’s Alice Hewson was the first English women to play in a competitive tournament at Augusta National, in April 2019.

The Clemson University student has since graduated and earned her card at the Ladies European Tour Qualifying School. Humphreys and Fuller, who both played in the Curtis Cup against the USA in 2018, did not make the cut at last year’s ANWA after the first two rounds were played at Champions Retreat.

But they did get to experience Augusta National during the practice round for the final round after the tournament moved from Champions Retreat to the home of The Masters.

Berkhamsted’s Alice Hewson played in the final round at Augusta National last year

PGA Tour calls off five events

THE stunning news that the 2020 Masters had been cancelled came hot on the heels of the PGA Tour’s decision to cancel all tournaments.e

That included this week’s Players’ Championship, which was abandoned after Thursday’s close of play in the first round, overnight on UK time.

The majority of golf fans woke to learn that there would be no play at Sawgrasws on Friday, or over the weekend.

The announcement came after the risk to players, the public and volunteers at the tournament was judged to have risen even further less than 24 hours after PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monaghan had announced plans to play without spectators over the final three rounds.

The next four events on the PGA Tour – including the WGC World Match Play at Austin, Texas – have all been postponed including the Valero Texas Open, which was due to take place the week before The Masters.

The European Tour has also called off three more tournaments later this summer – in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, including two Challenge Tour events.

The next golf scheduled on the continent of Europe is set to be the Andalucia Open, on April 30 – after the Magical Kenya Open and the Hero Indian Open – set for March – and April’s Volvo China Open and Maybank Championship were all called off earlier this month.

The LPGA has already called off its first Major of the year – the ANA Inspiration at California’s Rancho Mirage, from April 2-5, while the PGA Tour has also cancelled events in South America and China.

The Ladies European Tour has called off the inaugural Aramco Saudi Ladies Invitational because of the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19)

LET calls off Saudi International

THE Ladies European Tour became the latest to cancel a top ranking event with its new Aramco Saudi Ladies International, becoming another casualty because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The first-ever Saudi Ladies International was due to take place at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club, from March 19-22.

Again the LET said the postponement was made in light of recent health advice and travel restrictions due to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

The LET’s priority was to ensure its players and associated partners and organsations were safe and the decision was made following advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO), a spokeswoman said on Friday.

LET chief executive Alexandra Armas said: “There is no doubt that the last few weeks have been extremely challenging for sports and postponing next week’s tournament has not been an easy decision.

“But we fully appreciate the recent restrictions which have been introduced in respect of travel into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“Even though this was not our desired outcome, I wish to thank the promoter and event owner Golf Saudi for looking into every possible option to make this event happen.

“We were so impressed with their passion and efforts, and we will work closely with them to find a date in the future to deliver this historic event for our members.”

All parties are committed to rescheduling the tournament at some point later in the year – but no date had been confirmed at this stage, the LET added in a statement.

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Charlotte Heath is the first English golfer to win the Australian Women’s Amateur Championship since Julie Wade back in 1995. Picture by GOLF AUSTRALIA

CHARLOTTE Heath became just the fifth British player to ever win the third oldest women’s amateur championship in the world at the weekend.

The 18-year-old England international swept away the challenge of Indonesia’s Mela Putri to claim a stunning victory in the Australian Women’s Amateur Championship.

The Yorkshire schoolgirl was too strong for her 22-year-old rival and claimed a majestic 7&6 victory in the 36-hole final at the Royal Queensland Golf Club.

Heath became the first winner from British shores in 24 years and just the fifth to win the Australian Women’s title in it’s 127-year history.

The last was Julie Hall from Felixstowe, who won in Oz in 1995, having won her second Women’s Amateur Championship in the same year, after her first victory in 1990.

The Australian is actually the 10th oldest championship in the world including men’s opens at professional and amateur level.

Heath – a member at Huddersfield Golf Club – got off to a fast start and was three-up after five holes.

Heath’s lead was a commanding eight holes by the completion of the first 18 holes.

The 18-year-old then tightened her grip in the afternoon by holing her approach to the third hole from 180 yards for an eagle – taking her lead to 10 holes.

Putri fought back to win four of the next five and threaten a comeback. But Heath held her nerve to hole a par putt on the 12^th and claim the title with six holes to spare.

After the win, Charlotte Heath told Golf Australia: “It was a bit stressful and I was super nervous to start.

“I got off to a quick start and then in the second 18 she started playing really good and it was tense.

“I made two bogeys and she made two birdies and I dropped a few. But I kept my head and kept going.”

The Yorkshire county player has been a frequent visitor to the winners’ circle over the past 12 months, winning the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters at Nizels GC, in June, and the Pleasington Putter.

But the win Down Under is by far the most significant of the former England junior international’s young career.

Victory will catapult her up the world rankings from her current position of 226nd.

Heath said describing the moment she hovered over the matchwinning putt: “I was just like ‘hole it’ – it was for a half anyway so if I missed it – and it went six feet past. It didn’t really matter.”

Heath will now be invited to two LPGA events – the Victoria Open and Women’s Australian Open.

But before that Charlotte has some pleading to do with her teachers back at home.

“I’ve never played in LPGA event – hopefully I can get time off school,” said a smiling Heath.

The English star qualified for the matchplay event by finishing in a tie for 17^th in the strokeplay.

Rounds of 71 and 74 left Charlotte Heath somewhat under the radar going into the knockout stages.

But while Cornwall’s Women’s Amateur Champion Emily Toy – the top seed after winning the strokeplay – unfortunately fell at the first hurdle to eventual finalist Putri, Heath got up a head of steam as the week wore on.

A 4&2 win over Australia’s Fiona Xu earned Heath a place in the last 16 where another local hero – Charley Jacobs – was brushed aside by the same score.

On Saturday, a third Aussie was put to the sword in the quarter-finals when Heath triumphed over the much-fancied Lian Higo booking her place in the last four with a 3&2 winning margin.

South Korea’s Minju Kim was next up, but with Heath’s confidence rapidly rising the English women’s international notched another impressive 3&2 win to reach the final.

Then came the crowning glory with Heath thoroughly deserving of her plaudits.

Heath’s name joins the following Brits on the trophy:
•1995 Julie Hall (Felixstowe Ferry) – played in five Curtis Cups
•1955 Miss Veronica Anstey (later Beharrell) Edgbaston GC
•1935 Miss J B Walker (The Berkshire) Won the Irish Ladies Amateur in 1930
•1905 Miss M Backhouse

•To see how Charlotte Heath got to the final click here for the full matchplay results and for the strokeplay qualifying scores click here.

Jones and Strickland knocked out in semi-finals of Australian Amateur

Northamptonshire County’s Ben Jones was knocked out in the semi-finals of the Australian Amateur Championship, losing to Ireland’s Tom McKibbin, who lost in the final.
Picture LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE County’s Ben Jones joined Sussex’s Charlie Strickland and Northumberland’s Matty Lamb in the matchplay stages of the Australian Amateur Championship.

Lamb, from Hexham, a member of the victorious Home Internatinals team in September, had his run halted to the last eight by Australia’s Louis Dobbelaar, in the third round.

However, Jones, the losing finalist in last summer’s Amateur Championship and Ham Manor’s Strickland battled through to the semi-finals.

But with an all-English final beckoning – which would have created some unparalled history at an overseas championship – they were both knocked out.

Jones’ match with Northern Ireland’s Tom McKibbin was nip and tuck all the way with the man from Holywood edging it by a single hole.

Australia’s Jediah Morgan – who went on to win the event – had too much in the tank for Strickland, who lost 5&3.

Strickland is one of nine players in the England Men’s squad for 2020. The former England Boys cap, who missed most of 2018 after being diagnosed with epilepsy, claimed the Selborne Salver, at Blackmoor GC, last April.

Rotherham’s Ben Schmidt – who claimed the English Men’s and Boys Amateur Strokeplay double last year – was one of eight England players in the 198-strong field that failed to make it through to the last 64.

The youngest-ever winner of the Brabazon and the youngest to win the Carris in the same season at just 16 – to break Sandy Lyle’s 42-year-old record – missed out by four shots after an opening 80 on the Brisbane Course.

The Australian Amateur is the ninth oldest golf championship in the world and has only been won by two Englishmen in its 127-year history – the MP Michael Scott won it three times in four years from 1905-8.

Middlesex’s Warren Bennett, from Ruislip GC, won the title in 1994, at Royal Sydney GC – the same year he claimed the Lytham Trophy and represented Great Britain & Ireland in the Eisenhower Trophy at the World Amateur Team Championship, at Versailles, in France.

•For full strokeplay scores in the Australian Amateur click here and to see the matchplay results click here.

Corhampton’s Scott Gregory – winner of the 2017 New South Wales Amateur. Picture by ANTHONY POWTER

Can England match Gregory and Petrozzi’s success in New South Wales Amateur?

THE seven-strong England squad (five men and two women) move on from Royal Queensland to play in the New South Wales’ Amateur being held jointly at St Michael’s Golf Club and the Coast Golf Club in Little Bay.

England have a great record in the NSW Amateur, with Hampshire’s Scott Gregory winning in 2017, beating Sussex’s Marco Penge in an all-English 36-hole final.

Staffordshire’s Gian-Marco Petrozzi kept the trophy in English hands a year later while Formby’s Paul Howard (2015), Jack Senior (2011) and Gary Wolstenholme (2007) have all taken the title in the 21st Century.

Michael Scott MP was England’s first – and only – back-to-back winner in 1909 and 1910.

Their Australian adventure ends with the Avondale Amateur at Avondale Golf Club from January 28-31.

•Follow live scores in the New South Wales Open by clicking here.

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Northamptonshire County’s Callum Farr – runner-up in the English Amateur in August – is one of a seven-strong England team heading to Australia in January.
Picture by LEADERBOARD PHOTOGRAPHY

SEVEN members of the England Golf’s performance squads are travelling to Australia in the New Year, to kick off their 2020 amateur golf season.

Five of the men’s squad and two from the women’s team are heading down under for four top-class tournaments in January.

Northamptonshire County’s Ben Jones and Callum Farr, Yorkshire’s Ben Schmidt, Tom Plumb, from Somerset, and Northumberland’s Matty Lamb will spearhead the men’s challenge.

Cornwall’s Emily Toy – the reigning Women’s Amateur champion – and Yorkshire’s Charlotte Heath will lead the way for the women.

Emily Toy, winner of The 2019 Women’s Amateur Championship. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

A month of competition starts with the Master of the Amateur tournament at the Victoria Golf Club near Melbourne, between January 7-10.

The England players will then travel on for the Australian Amateur, at Royal Queensland, from January 14-19.

The New South Wales Amateur follows immediately at St Michael’s Golf Club and the Coast Golf Club, in Little Bay.

The month ends with the Avondale Amateur at Avondale Golf Club, from January 28-31.

Yorkshire teenager Schmidt is the most decorated of the England Golf’s men’s party, having broken the record as the youngest-ever winner of the Brabazon and Carris Trophy double in the same season, at just 16, in July.

Jones reached the semi-final of The Amateur Championship at Portmarnock, in June, but missed out on a Walker Cup appearance at Royal Liverpool, in September.

Yeovil’s Tom Plumb did play for Great Britain and Ireland at Hoylake, where the USA regained the Walker Cup.

The 20-year-old, who won the South West Counties Amateur Championship back in June, was also crowned Cape Province Open winner in March. He has been an England international at men’s and boys level since 2015.

Hampshire Hog winner Lamb, who made his debut in the English Home Internationals alongside Schmidt, Plumb, Jones and Farr, who lost in the final of the English Amateur to Stoke Park’s Conor Gough, in August.

Corhampton’s Scott Gregory – winner of the 2017 New South Wales Amateur. Picture by ANTHONY POWTER

England’s successes Down Under – from Victorian Michael Scott to Scott Gregory

THE Australian Amateur dates back to 1894 – a year before the US Amateur was founded.

That makes it the fourth oldest national championship in the amateur world behind New Zealand (1893), South Africa (1892) and the R&A Amateur (1885).

Gloucestershire’s former Winchester College student Michael Scott, who emigrated to Australia at the start of the 20th Century, won the Australian Amateur four times between 1905 and 1911.

Scott also took the amateur honours at the inaugural Australian Open title in 1904, and won again in 1907 – beating both the professionals and the amateurs in the field by some seven shots.

The son of the Earl of Eldon also won seven Victoria Amateur state titles before returning to Europe to fight in the First World War.

Scott, whose sister Lady Margaret Scott who won the first three Women’s Amateur Championships, won two French Amateur titles in 1912 and 1922.

He made his Walker Cup debut in 1924, at New York’s Garden City Golf Club.

The Royal St George’s captain became the oldest player to appear in the Walker Cup when he also captained the Great Britain and Ireland team at St Andrews, in 1934, at the age of 55 – having become the oldest winner of The Amateur Championship a year earlier.

The only English winner Down Under in post-war times was Middlesex’s Warren Bennett – the Ealing man was crowned in 1994 – the Scots have a better record with Connor Syme winning in 2016, while Eric Ramsay won at Royal Melbourne, in 2005, and Jack Doherty at Mount Lawley in 2003.

But the English have fared better in the 36-hole strokeplay qualifier – at one point given the title of Australian Amateur Strokeplay Champion but now known as the Australian Amateur Medallist.

Danny Willett took that Strokeplay title in 2008 – preceded by Andrew Dodt and Jason Day (2006), while Wellingborough’s Ryan Evans took the prize in 2014 – followed a year later by Huddersfield’s Nick Marsh, six months after he beat Hampshire’s Scott Gregory in the English Amateur final at Saunton.

Australian Blake Windred claimed the Avondale in 2018 and 2019 and turned pro earlier this year. He was third Australian to win the Avondale back-to-back since its founding in 2006.

The last Englishman to claim the title in New South Wales was Evans in 2014 that marked a memorable month Down Under for Evans and England Golf.

Woburn’s Steve Lewton, who went on to play on the European Challenge and Asian Tours, was the second ever winner in 2007, followed by Coventry’s Matt Cryer a year later.

In 2017, Gregory, from Corhampton, claimed the New South Wales Amateur title as the reigning Amateur Championship beat Sussex’s Marco Penge in the final, at Terrey Hills G&CC.

The Corhampton player – who headed England Golf’s party that year – also featured in the Master of the Amateur tournament and met Open Champion legend Peter Thompson during a practice round.

The Australian, who lifted the Claret Jug three years’ running in the mid-1950s – and five times in total between 1954 and 1965 – died in June 2018.

Staffordshire’s Gian-Marco Petrozzi claimed the NSW title in 2018. Previous English winners include Formby’s Paul Howard (2015), Hexham’s Jack Senior (2011) and Gary Wolstenholme (2007).

The New South Wales dates back to 1898 – the most famous champion was New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, the winner in 1992, who went on to win the US Open in 2005 at Pinehurst.

•For more information about the amateur events England Golf’s party will play in Australia, in January, visit www.golf.org.au

The post England Golf’s ‘Magnificent Seven’ set for Australia’s oldest championship in 2020 appeared first on Golf North.

The 2018 Great Britain and Ireland team that were soundly beaten at New York’s Quaker Ridge in 2018, including Surrey’s Annabell Fuller and Essex’s Lily May Humphreys.
Picture by THE R&A / GETTY IMAGES

TEN players have been named in The R&A”s initial Great Britain and Ireland squad for the 2020 Curtis Cup, which will be played at Wales’ Conwy Golf Club in June.

The GB&I will be attempting to regain the historic trophy after the United States recorded a commanding 17-3 victory at Quaker Ridge in New York last year.

The 41st Curtis Cup match will be played from Friday, June 12 til Sunday June 14 at the North Wales course on the Morfa Peninsula, overlooking the Conwy estuary.

Elaine Ratcliffe, who will captain GB&I in the Curtis Cup for the first time, said: “We have a strong pool of players to choose from throughout GB&I and I’m delighted with the 10 players we have selected for the initial squad.

“Each player’s performance and results will be monitored closely over the coming months and we will be looking for each of them to maintain a high standard as they try to secure their places in the team.

“There are many other talented players who can be added to this squad over the next few months,” said the former Ladies European Tour player, who won the English Ladies Amateur Championship in 1998, and hails from Sandbach, in Cheshire.

“We will be following performances closely before the Curtis Cup team is announced in May,” added Ratcliffe, who is one of the co-owners of Essendon Golf Club, in Hertfordshire.

Royal County Down’s Olivia Mehaffey, the highest-ranked member of the squad at No. 19 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, is aiming to make her third Curtis Cup appearance.

Having made her debut in 2016, where she secured three-and-a-half points for the victorious GB&I team, Mehaffey was also a stand-out player in last year’s tough defeat at the 2018 Curtis Cup.

The Northern Ireland international helped achieve two-and-a-half of the team’s three-point total. Currently attending Arizona State University – the university where Phil Mickelson and Paul Casey played – Mehaffey has recorded three collegiate wins this year.

Also in contention for the 2020 team are three of Mehaffey’s team mates from 2018 – Shannon McWilliam, Annabell Fuller and Lily May Humphreys.

The latter has enjoyed an excellent 2019, winning the Annika Invitational Europe, Irish Women’s Open and Welsh Ladies’ Open Strokeplay championships.

Cornwall’s Emily Toy, the 2019 Women’s Amateur Champion and an R&A Foundation scholar, is the third of four English players named in the initial squad and is hoping to make her Curtis Cup debut in 2020.

The squad features a further five potential debutants including Hannah Darling, the Scottish Girls’ Open champion, Annabel Wilson, the Irish Women’s Close champion, Hazel MacGarvie, and Julie McCarthy.

Cheshire’s Isobel Wardle – recently crowned the English Women’s County Champion of Champions at Woodhall Spa – is the final England player in the provisional squad.

The Prestbury GC member helped England win the Women’s Home Internationals at Downfield, in Scotland, last month, alongside Humphreys and Toy.

The final eight players for the GB&I team will be announced on May 11, 2020, and will include the two golfers who are placed highest in the World Amateur Golf Ranking in the week prior.

A further six players will be selected by The R&A Women’s selection committee. Up to four non-travelling reserves will also be announced.

The links course overlooking the Caenarvonshire coast is one of the best in Wales and has hosted the 2009 European Amateur Team Chamiopnship, as well as the Ryder Cup Wales Senior Open on the European Seniors Tour in 2007.

It was also used for Final Qualifying for the 2006 Open at Royal Liverpool but hosted a European Tour event as far back as 1970 when the Martini championship was held there.

The 1990 Men’s Home Internationals were staged at Conwy which also hosted the 1983 Ladies British Open Amateur Championship.

Played off its tips at 6,901 yards, it has three monster par fours over 450 yards off the men’s championship tees but even off the yellows, at 6,476 it’s long holes into the wind are seriously stern tests.

The GB&I squad (age and club/country in brackets):

Hannah Darling (16, Broomieknowe, Scotland)
Shannon McWilliam (20, Aboyne, Scotland)
Annabell Fuller (17, Roehampton, England)
Olivia Mehaffey (21, Royal County Down Ladies, Ireland)
Lily May Humphreys (17, Stoke by Nayland, England)
Emily Toy (21, Carlyon Bay, England)
Hazel MacGarvie (19, Royal Troon, Scotland)
Isobel Wardle (19, Prestbury, England)
Julie McCarthy (20, Forrest Little, Ireland)
Annabel Wilson (18, Lurgan, Ireland)

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AUSTRIA’S Isabella Holpher will defend her title at the English Women’s Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship at Ipswich Golf Club, next week.

The 18-year-old completed a remarkable 11-shot wire-to-wire victory 12 months ago at Coventry GC and returns attempting to become the first back-to-back winner since Yorkshire’s future LPGA player Jodi Ewart-Shadoff, in 2007-08.

The top-ranked player in the field is Essex’s World No. 23 Lily May Humphreys, from Stoke-by-Nayland, who makes the short journey to the Suffolk club on the back of a remarkable season.

Last year’s English Amateur Champion has won the Welsh and Irish Open Amateur Strokeplay Championships so will be bidding for a rare hat-trick when the three-day championship gets under way, on Tuesday, August 20.

Humphreys, who made her Curtis Cup debut in 2018, also claimed the Annika Invitational Europe in Sweden.

The 17-year-old was also runner-up to Hertfordshire’s Ellen Hume at the English Women’s Amateur Championship when defending her crown at Saunton GC.

Hume, from Mill Green GC, has returned to college in America but Humphreys is joined by Cornwall’s Women’s Amateur Champion Emily Toy, Somerset’s Mimi Rhodes – a quarter-finalist and Norfolk’s Chiberta Grand Priz winner Amelia Williamson

The quartet were also in the English team that won last week’s Women’s Home Internationals, at Downfield GC, in Scotland.

The victorious English Girls’ team claimed the Girls’ Home Internationals at the same venue and are represented in Suffolk by Gosford Ladies’ Jessica Baker, Whitley Bay’s Rosie Belsham, Ellie Gower, from Gleneagles, Huddersfield’s Charlotte Heath, Stoke Park’s Thalia Kirby and Carus Green’s Caitlin Whitehead, from Cumbria.

The latter finished second behind Germany’s Marie Bechtold at the English Girls’ Open Amateur Championship at The Gog Magog, last month.

Another player to look out for is Finland’s Kerttu Hiltunen, who last year was a runaway winner of the English Girls’ Under 16 Open Amateur Championship.

Hiltunen returns to the UK along with other Continental entrants from France, Germany Italy, Spain and The Netherlands.

The Scots are also out in force with a group including Penelope Brown, Louise Duncan, Chloe Goadby, Jasmine McIntosh, Lorna McClymont, Shannon McWilliam, Megan Robb and Clara Young.

The host club is represented by Vanessa Bell, Sharon Luckman and Abbie Symonds.

Purdis Heath – as Ipswich is also known – is a traditional heathland layout, and hosted the 2011 men’s English Mid-Amateur Championship.

The English Women’s Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship is contested over 72 holes. The full field play 18 holes on each of the first two days with the leading 40 players and ties returning to play 36 holes on the third day.

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ENGLAND’S women’s team will be looking to go one better than last year when they finished runners-up to Scotland in the Ladies Home Internationals, at Ballybunion, in Ireland.

The Home Internationals get under way when England face Wales at Downfield Golf Club, in Scotland, on Wednesday.

They will then face the Auld Enemy on Thursday before facing the last of their Home Nations opponents, Ireland, on Friday.

The selectors have a strong array of talent at their disposal , and have named Women’s Amateur Champion Emily Toy in their seven-strong squad.

Toy is joined by Hertfordshire’s current English Women’s Amateur Champion Ellen Hume, and the player she beat – her predecessor Lily May Humphreys – who has won three big titles aleady in 2019 – in the team that travelled north of the border, earlier this week.

Even without Roehampton’s Fuller sisters or Berkhamsted’s Alice Hewson, the recent winner of the European Amateur Championship, England can go into their matches with Wales, Ireland and hosts Scotland with every confidence.

Twenty-one-year-old Toy claimed the biggest title of her career at the Women’s Amateur Championship at Royal Co. Down, in June, where she beat New Zealand’s Amelia Garvey in the final.

The member at Cornwall’s Carlyon Bay also won the New South Wales Amateur Championship, in Australia, at the start of the year and been flying ever since.

Debutant Hume won her English crown at Sauntion and has also won the West of England Championship – and the Faldo Series’ England Girls’ Championship – this summer.

Essex ace Humphreys, a member at Stoke-by-Nayland, claimed the Welsh and Irish Strokeplay titles in May, and the Annika Invitational Europe.

Humphreys played in last year’s Home Internationals and has since represented Great Britain and Ireland in the Vagliano Trophy at Royal St George’s, as well as for England at the European Ladies’ Team Championship, in July.

Cheshire’s Isobel Wardle won this season’s Comboy Leveret and was second at the Welsh Ladies’ Open Strokeplay,

The 19-year-old, from Prestbury GC, reached the quarter-final at the English Women’s Amateur and the last 16 at the Women’s Amateur.

Wardle was also third at the St Rule Trophy, fourth at the Portuguese International Ladies’ and fifth at the Spanish International in the early part of the season.

Somerset’s Mimi Rhodes reached the quarter-final of the Women’s Amateur, and was eighth in the German Girls’ Open as well as ninth in the Annika Invitational Europe.

The 17-year-old represented England in the European Girls’ Team Championship last month, where she was fourth in the individual competition.

Rhodes, a member at Burnham and Berrow, was part of the winning English team in last year’s Girls’ Home Internationals, in Ireland.

Leicstershire’s Lianna Bailey, won the 2018 St Rule Trophy at St Andrews and finished second in the same event this year.

The 22-year-old, from Kirby Muxloe GC, represented England in this year’s European Team Championship.

Bailey was also a member of the team that finished runners-up to Scotland in the 2018 Women’s Home Internationals in Ireland.

Norfolk’s Amelia Williamson won the Chiberta Grand Prix, in France, in July, and was third at the Critchley Astor Salver, at Sunningdale.

The 19-year-old, from Royal Cromer GC, was seventh at the Dutch International Junior Open.

She followed that up by sharing 11^th place behind Hewson at the European Amateur at Parkstone.

Williamson was also part of the winning English team at last year’s Girls’ Home International.

For live scoring click here.

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