Justin Rose in the suite named after him at North Hants Golf Club, including a picture of him putting in the Ryder Cup at Medinah in the famous 2012 comeback win.

HAMPSHIRE’S Justin Rose thinks European captain Padraig Harrington may need eight captain’s picks as a one-off selection policy for the 2020 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits, in September.

Rose is determined that whatever happens to the Majors in 2020, the Ryder Cup should remain the highlight of the golfing calendar – and does not want it cancelled at this stage as some sources have predicted.

Debate over rearranging the Masters before the Ryder Cup in September – or after in October – has raged since Augusta National postponed April’s first Major of the season.

And with doubts over the US Open going ahead in June after Winged Foot was closed earlier this week – as a result of the coronavirus epidemic in New York – talk about whether Ryder Cup will go ahead has been intensifying.

Rose said: “Looking at it personally I’m not in as good a position as I’d like to be so it makes qualification trickier with events being stripped out – so the teams might look a little different this time around.

“If it goes ahead in 2020, I don’t know if it’s more important that we change the qualification criteria and Padraig gets eight picks maybe – given the circumstances?

“Rules are rules and you’ve got to have some type of guideline,” added Rose, a member at North Hants GC.

“But it’s an imperfect world at the moment and we’ve got to make the best of a bad situation.

“We either keep it where it is and the teams fall where they may, or you move it a year and try to make it a bit more of a highlight.

“The most important thing is that the health of the world is better,” added Justin, who is spending time at his Bahamas home during the current lockdown.

Rose, who blossomed in the county’s amateur ranks before becoming one of the biggest teenage talents in Europe in the mid 1990s, is concerned about what kind of schedule the top Europeans could be left facing when the Tours do get back under way.

With all European Tour golf officially cancelled until the end of May – and with the rising death toll in the UK from COVID-19 cases not expected to peak for another couple of weeks – the season’s main events could all get squeezed into a condensed season.

May’s USPGA Championship, at TPC Harding Park, in San Franciscio, which was called off – and could theoretically move to the slot in the calendar vacated now the Tokyo Olympics has been put back a year.

But reigning Olympic Champion Rose – who learned on Tuesday that he would not be able to defend the Gold Medal he won in Rio, in 2016 – is concerned about what knock-on affect the coronavirus epidemic could have on the Ryder Cup.

Rose said: “The Ryder Cup deserves to be the highlight of the schedule and deserves to have the players look forward to it and the fans to be excited about it.

“It would be a shame if it just kind of fell into a rhythm of golf and there wasn’t as much build-up.

“That’s what creates some of the excitement about the Ryder Cup, the talking about it for a year, the anticipation of it.

‘The qualification period for the Ryder Cup would also be very condensed.”

•You can see the current standings in qualifcation for Europe’s team by clicking here.

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Matthew Jordan playing the 18th on St Andrews Old Course in the second round of the Alfred Dunhill LInks, which he leads after a superb 64. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

MATTHEW Jordan carded a stunning 64, which included a hole-out eagle two followed by five successive birdies, at St Andrews Old Course to take the halfway lead in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

The promising Cheshire has been plying his trade primarily on the European Challenge Tour this year, where the Royal Liverpool member has already claimed a maiden professional victory.

And he knows how to win around the Old Course having claimed the St Andrews Links Trophy two years ago – arguably the leading strokeplay event for amateurs in the UK – shooting nine-under for 54 holes, having played the first round on the Jubilee.

The 2017 Walker Cup player, who grew up playing at Hoylake currently sits second in the Road to Mallorca rankings – and he continues to impress in his dalliances with the European Tour.

The 23-year-old led the opening round of the Betfred British Masters in May, eventually finishing in a share of 15^th place at Hillside Golf Club, showing his likeness for the Southport links not far from his home.

And he is out in front once again on British soil after a round which caught fire when he holed out with his approach at the par-four third hole.

Five birdies in a row from the fourth led to a front nine 29 and stirred hope of a potential chase for the magic number of 59.

Jordan, who clearly relishes links golf, said: “After that start, I wanted to keep momentum, because I knew I would have chances.

“I’ll just try and go as low as possible because the scoring is so good. You can’t make a few birdies and think, oh, I’ve done my job.

“I was just free-wheeling it really. I wasn’t thinking too much which is probably a good thing.

“A 59 did cross my mind once. I had my friends here and they were quick to tell me that they wanted the same on the back nine.

“I’ve done quite well recently. I had one more invite so I just asked my managers, and tried to sort it out because I really wanted to play it – and I absolutely love this place.

“I am must trying to make the most of it,” added Jordan.

Eight pars and a birdie on the way home were still enough to earn the Liverpudlian a 14-under total and a one-stroke advantage over his friend, Challenge Tour No, 1 Calum Hill, the leading Scot at halfway, as well as Essex’s Matthew Southgate and Swede Joakim Lagergren.

Hill, who has one twice on the Challenge Tour this year, said: “It’s always nice to be at home and play in front of family and friends that can come out and watch.

“And it’s even better that I played well and they can enjoy themselves because of that as well.

“It’s slightly different this week because everyone is playing a different course at a different time,”added Hill, who is just one win away from automatich promotion to the main tour under the current rules.

“It’s just about playing as well as you can, and going as low as you can over these first two days and then after three rounds, I think you can look at your position a bit better and judge what you need to do for the final day.”

World No. 4 Justin Rose was among the six players in a tie for fifth position on 12-under.

Rose, was also on 59 watch after making six birdies and an eagle in eight holes at Kingsbarn – where the featured players on Sky TV’s coverage were playing in the second round.

The Hampshire ace, who has spoken about the effects of Hurricane Dorian on the Bahamas, where his family have had their main home for some five years, said: “It was an unbelievable front nine.

“Obviously a great round. Got me in the tournament. Eleven birdies, never going to be disappointed with that.

“I’m taking credit for the 28. JT (Justin Timberlake) was over the back of the par five third green in three, putted up near my coin and gave me a perfect read and I made an eagle putt.”

If Rose and Jordan can keep their place near the top of the leaderboard – and possibly find themselves paired for Sunday’s final round, they will have more than one thing in common.

Jordan’s first national win as an amateur came at North Hants – Rose’s home course – in the 2016 Hampshire Hog, the event won in 1995 as a 14-year-old by the Ryder Cup star, who quickly became the country’s hottest young prospect.

And Rose was the Hampshire player to win the St Andrews Links Trophy back in 1997 – the summer he became the youngest player to appear in the Walker Cup, having been selected – like Jordan – after his win at St Andrews.

Rose is tied alongside two home stars in Russell Knox and Richie Ramsey as well as New Zealand’s Ryan Fox, Wiltshire’s Jordan Smith and Frenchman Victor Perez.

•For live scores from the third round of the Alfred Dunhill Links. click here.

Rose family helping relief effort in Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian

JUSTIN ROSE lives in Nassau, some 100 miles south of where the eye of the storm hit but it certainly has given Rose a hefty dose of reality.

Rose said before the event began: “We were very fortunate to get away with it.

“We caught the fringes of the storm. We had three days of 40-miles-an-hour wind but nothing to impact the house, nothing dangerous at all.

“Just coastal erosion, beach erosion, stuff like that. We feel very lucky to get away with it.

“You realise how vulnerable you are when you see the power of the storm and what it can do.

“Nassau has become very much the heart of the relief effort. That’s where my wife is, at a children’s home in Nassau, working and helping and doing what she can.

“A lot of us in the community have done as much fundraising as possible.

“Where I live at, Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake have been involved in setting up a significant fund that can try to help some of the rebuilding process.

“In a small community like the Bahamas, when something so devastating happens, we definitely club together pretty well. It’s pretty devastating really to see.

“We can lose family, that’s one of the worst things that can happen. But to lose maybe your whole family and your whole family home. Kids are orphaned.

“There are going to be many stories of things like this. Golf is insignificant at that point. It’s always family first and these tragedies rip families apart.

“Those are very important things to think about when you get a little bit ahead of yourself and above your station.

“Your putt lips out and you think it’s the end of the world. Those are the moments when you’ve got to check yourself.”

McDowell wasn’t ready to play golf after holiday home was ‘flattened’

FORMER US Open winner Graeme McDowell and his family were lucky to escape after their holiday home on Abaco was “totally flattened.”

McDowell pulled out of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth last week because his mind was not on playing golf after the worst natural disaster in the Bahama’s history.

Some 1,300 people are still officially missing and 70,000 were made homeless after 180mph winds caused an estimated $7billion of damage to property.

McDowell said: “It was a beautiful community we lived-in but with the eye of the hurricane passing right over the island, every house was totally flattened.

“The winds were also so strong, I heard from a neighbour they found one of my wedges hundreds of yards away along the beachfront, and knew it was one of my clubs as it had my marking on it.

“More importantly, friends and so many people we had met down there have lost everything and while it was a vacation home for us, these people we’ve come to know so well, lived permanently on Abaco.

“It hurts Kristin and I to lose our house but to see people losing their lives down there along with people losing their homes – and now not knowing what to do with their lives – is an enormous tragedy that we are still trying to come to terms with.

“Since the hurricane we have been trying to help as much as we can in arranging for a truck of supplies carrying generators along with food and water, and trying to do every little bit to help in any way we can.

“At first, we didn’t know [the extent of the damage] as we had little communication from our own little community for nearly two weeks afterwards as it was also impossible to both fly into or fly out of local airports.

“There was also huge amount of violence and looting and things like that going on, so it’s been a very emotional month.”

McDowell, who was married on the beach by the golf course, revealed: “We had plans in place to be down at Abaco that very week the hurricane struck.

“But we pulled the plug on those plans about three or four days before the hurricane arrived,” he said.

“The last time I was down there was at the end of July for my 40^th birthday.

“So, while we are talking about life and death here, the house was just a material thing for us that we can replace.

“What you have to worry about is that there is still over 1,000 people still not accounted for and that makes for scary stuff.”

Fellow Ulsterman Darren Clarke also had a holiday home in Abaco, which has staged the Hero World Challenge in recent years, and like McDowell, got married – to his second wife Alison – on the same beach.

The post Jordan and Rose’s Dunhill Links are sharing amateur victories at St Andrews appeared first on Golf North.

Thurloway, from Chartham Park, beat Gloucestershire’s Joe Long 6&5 in last year’s final at Formby, and is now seeking to become the first player to win back-to-back championships since Paul Casey in 2000 and 2001.

Long, from Lansdown Golf Club, also returns attempting to go one better than last year – having played well in the 2018 Hampshire Hog, which was won by his close friend Mitch Waite, who is now in the pro ranks.

Saunton GC’s Jake Burnage the 2017 Hampshire Hog winner. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

St Andrews Links Trophy winner Jake Burnage, from North Devon’s Saunton GC, also made his breakthrough win at North Hants just two years ago.

Burnage missed the European Amateur Team Championships in Sweden earlier this month – something that would normally preclude a player’s chance of Walker Cup selection.

Burnage, who starteed the season in the England A squad, will be battling against his nine England rivals, who are keen to press their claims for one of the 10 spots in Walker Cup captain Craig Watson’s team to face the Americans at Royal Liverpool, in September.

The top-ranked player in this year’s field is World No. 30, Tom Sloman, from Somerset’s Taunton & Pickeridge Golf Club, who won the individual title at the European Nations Cup at Spain’s Sotogrande, in the spring.

Sloman is joined by Lindrick and Yorkshire’s Bailey Gill and Yeovil and Somerset’s Tom Plumb, who were also part of the English squad that defended the team title in southern Spain – all three are in the GB&I squad.

With the team expected to be named in less than two weeks after the US Amateur, the English event represents B.B.&O.’s David Langley’s last chance to impress on UK soil at least.

Wallasey’s Walker Cup hopeful Joshua McMahon. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

Also looking to impress the Walker Cup selectors are Wallasey’s Josh McMahon, who was named in the provisional 16-man squad after his victory in the Lytham Trophy, in May, and Northamptonshire County’s Ben Jones, who reached the last four in The Amaetur Championship at Portmarnock, in June.

West Cornwall’s Brabazon runner-up Harry Hall and Hexham’s Matty Lamb – who were part of the English team that finished runner-up to hosts Sweden in the recent European Men’s Team Championship – are also heading to the Hampshire-Surrey border with the two qualifying courses which are just 11 miles apart.

Lamb has already won at North Hants this year having claimed the Hampshire Hog with a superb course record 63 in the second round, in April and earned his GB&I call-up with some strong showings since.

Also teeing it up at the Fleet club where Justin Rose made a name for himself as an amateur by Hallamshire and Yorkshire’s Alex Fitzpatrick, whose brother Matt has been a Ryder Cup team-mate of Rose’s.

Wiltshire’s England A squad member Jake Bolton, from Ogbourne Downs, went close at North Hants to landing both the Hampshire Hog and the Hampshire Salver, having to settle for runner-up.

Hexham’s Matty Lamb winner of the Hampshire Hog, at North Hants GC, in April. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES

Fellow squad member Billy McKenzie will lead the Hampshire charge aiming to follow in the footsteps of Meon Valley’s Harry Ellis, who became the youngest-ever winner of the English Amateur in 2012, aged just 16, breaking Sir Nick Faldo’s record which had stood since 1975.

Corhampton’s Scott Gregory was the beaten finalist at Saunton in 2014 – two yeas before he became Hampshire’s first-ever Amateur Champion and lost in the 2016 Spanish Amateur to France’s Romain Langasque, who had won the R&A’s prestigious crown the previous summer at Carnoustie.

McKenzie, having had dreams of making this year’s Walker Cup squad after his Spanish Amateur final win over Fitzpatrick in 2018, will be keen to make up for lost time and emulate former Hampshire Boys team-mate’s Gregory and Ellis by reaching the latter stages of the matchplay.

The left-hander, who was ranked in the top five in the USA’s NAIA rankings between 2014 and 2017 while at William Woods University, beat Castle Royle’s Langley 7&6 in front of the Great Britain and Ireland selectors at Portmarnock, last month.

Other England A squad members teeing it up are Northamptonshire County’s Callum Farr, who won the 2018 Selborne Salver at Blackmoor’s equally demanding heathland track, and Cheshire’s James Newton, from Prestbury, winner of the Irish Amateur Strokeplay, in May.

Howley Hall’s Ben Hutchinson, a member of the England A squad. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES.

Yorkshire’s Ben Hutchinson, from Howley Hall, Hertfordshire’s Harry Goddard (Hanbury Manor) and Lincolnshire’s Sam Done, from Kenwick Park, are the other England A squad members who will want a good week.

They can push their cases for a place in England’s Home Internationals team that willl head to Lahinch, the recent venue for the Irish Open on the European Tour, as defending champions, in September.

The field of 288 players also includes England Boy’s squad members Barclay Brown, also a member at Yorkshire’s Hallamshire GC, Surrey’s Enrique Dimayuga (Walton Heath), Stoke Park’s 2018 British Boys champion Conor Gough, Dubai=based Josh Hill, Hertfordshire’s Max Hopkins, Suffolk’s Habebul Islam, Trevose’s George Leigh, and Berkshamsted’s Ben Pierleoni.

The players were due to play 18 holes at both courses in qualifying with the top 64 and ties going through to the matchplay, although with a very poor weather forceast, including the threat of thunderstorms, organisers England Golf will be prepared for the possibility of qualifying being decided over 18 holes – as it was at Alwoodley, in Leeds, four years ago.

The seeded draw should commence on Thursday morning at Hankley Common, with a possible preliminary round. The last 32 and 16 matches are scheduled for Friday with the quarter and semi-finals due to be played on Saturday with the 36-hole final on Sunday.

For live scoring click here.

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The 2018 Fed Ex Champion in the Justin Rose Room at North Hants Golf Club where the club’s most famous member’s achievements – including his 2013 US Open win and claiming the Olympic Golf at Rio in 2016 – are recorded and celebrated. Picture courtesy North Hants GC

WHILE Justin Rose’s 14th appearance at the Masters may have not gone to plan over the first two days at Augusta, avid fans of amateur golf will remember events at North Hants Golf Club some 25 years ago, which set the US Open champion on the road to becoming the World No. 1.

Justin Rose was just 14 years old when he took on the might of the finest amateur golfers in the land in the 1995 Hampshire Hog – the majority were at least four or five years older, and in some cases 10, a lifetime in terms of experience and development, as in most sports.

But as the afternoon round unfolded, word spread back the clubhouse where many members had been either enjoying a long lunch, or were busy running the prestigious tournament that marks the real start of the UK domestic amateur season, that something special was happening out on the course.

The late respected sports reporter Alistair Marshall recalled before the 10^th anniversary of Rose blooming as a young boy: “A couple of us golf journalists were finishing a late lunch when a couple of the members came running into the bar.

“They said we had to come out quick because this young lad Justin Rose was ripping up the course, and was going to win at the age of just 14.”

He did indeed win, creating a new record 36-hole score in the process and the rest, as they say, is history.

The Hog was established back in 1959 and within its first 20 years had already established itself with three of Britain’s best two post-war amateurs – Sir Michael Bonallack Phillip Scrutton and Peter McEvoy.

The trio won it four times between them, sandwiched between the likes of future European Seniors Tour champion Carl Mason and a certain Sandy Lyle, who started the UK’s dominance at Augusta, 11 years after he collected the solid silver trophy depicting the famous Hampshire Hog.

Open and Masters winner Sandy Lyle is presented with the Hampshire Hog back in 1977. Picture courtesy of North Hants GC

The likes Gordon Brand Jnr and Steve Richardson would also graduate to Ryder Cup glory.

Another amateur legend, Gary Wolstenholme, who was invited to the Masters the following year after his two British Amateur Championship wins in 1991 and 2002, was crowned champion at North Hants in 1997 – denying Rose a second win – and in 2002.

And to bring the story up to date, if you had been one of the dozens of spectators rather even hundreds, who had watched the Hog over the last 10 or so years, you would have seen the likes of 2016 Masters winner Danny Willett, Tommy Fleetwood, Andy Sullivan and Matthew Fitzpatrick, who have all played in the last two Ryder Cups, tackling the heathland course where Rose really blossomed.

Rose still has incredibly strong ties to the club – the Justin Rose Room was created on the upper floor in the old committee room, featuring a trophy cabinet that features his official Olympic jacket after he claimed the Gold medal after the game returned to the Games for the first time in 112 years in Rio, in 2016.

The far end of the room features a folding wall which when extended – forms the official scoreboard from Merion Golf Club, where he famously won the US Open title in 2013.

Pictures of Justin winning the Hog back in 1995 and from some of his other famous victories – he is the only English junior to land the Carris and McGregor Trophies in the same season after winning the English U18 and U16 Amateur Championships, respectively – also adorn the walls.

But the most well-known picture features the teenager, who became the youngest-ever player to appear in the 1997 Walker Cup for Great Britain and Ireland against the USA, when he holed out at the last during the 1998 Open Championship, at Royal Birkdale, to finish fourth alongside Tiger Woods, having qualified as an amateur.

Rose turned pro the following week, and while it took him nine years to become crowned European No. 1, before moving to the United States, where he went on to claim 10 PGA Tour titles and two World Golf Championships, that April day at North Hants Golf Club, will always be remembered as pivotal in his journey to the top.

•Entry to watch this year’s Hampshire Hog on Sunday, April 14, is free. Play commences at 8am. North Hants Golf Club is on Minley Road, Fleet, just five minutes from the M3 Junction 4A.

Hampshire Hog winner Jordan Smith (left) with Moor Park’s Callum Shinkwin, holding the Hampshire Salver in 2013. Both are now on the European Tour. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN

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