FOUR Hampshire players made it through to the matchplay knockout at the English Amateur Championship at Staffordshire’s Beau Desert.
Hartley Wintney’s two-time US junior college winner Charlie Preston led the way in the 36-hole qualifier played at Beau Desert and Sutton Coldfield GC, on Tuesday and Wednesday, firing a fine eight-under total to sit in second place.
With the heatwave continuing across the UK, Preston – who made it through to Final Qualifying for The Open for a second year in a row earlier this month – found the form that he arrived back in the UK with in the latter part of May, after a stellar season playing for Iowa’s Indian Hills Community College.
Preston added a two-under 68 at the more difficult Beau Desert course, which will host the seven rounds of matchplay before the 97th English Amateur Champion is crowned after Sunday’s 36-hole final.
Joining him in the draw were Stoneham’s Jack Warren and clubmate Joe Buenfeld, the reigning Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Champion.
Meanwhile Corhampton junior Max Blake (PICTURED ABOVE) is dreaming of emulating 2016 Amateur Champion Scott Gregory, who 12 years ago made it to the final as a relatively unknown member at the club in the Meon Valley.
Stoneham’s Jack Warren (left) and clubmate Joe Buenfeld (right) who met in the final of the Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship, in June. Picture by ANDREW GRIFFIN / AMG PICTURES
Buenfeld, who became the first player to win the Sloane-Stanley Challenge Cup back-to-back for the first time in 44 years when beating Warren in the final in June, shot a superb 66 at Sutton Coldfield, when he looked to be heading for an early trip back down the M6, having struggled to a 76 at the championship’s main course, on Tuesday.
That six-under par round included seven birdies as he shot three-under on both the front and back nine to climb up into 44th spot.
Three of the four players are in the bottom half of the draw, and could meet each other in the later rounds, with only Buenfeld in the top half.
As the second seed, Preston faces Essex’s Henry Linley, who has signed to play for Lincoln Memorial University in September, who won on the Faldo Junior Series last summer.
Buenfeld has a tougher task against former Lancashire Amateur Champion Tom Hughes. The Formby golfer was runner-up in the Welsh Amateur Strokeplay Championship back in April.
Blake has the unenviable task of playing England international Jamie Van Wyk, from Royal Lytham & St Annes, who started the season with two top-three finishes in Australia.
Former Hampshire Junior Champion Warren, whose renaissance continued after a number of years in the shadows since graduating from college in North Carolina three years ago, crept into the hat on countback – having shot a level-par 70 at Beau Desert on day two, having struggled at Sutton Coldfield with a 73, while many of the early leaders were going low there.
Blake, who went into the final round of the McGregor Trophy – the English U16 Championship – with a four-shot lead, after storming through the field with a scintillating 66.
He had to settle for fourth place after a tough final day, but this week represents another major upward curve in the Corhampton teenager’s progress in the men’s game while still a junior, who is eligible for the county’s U18s for two more seasons.
If Blake can pull off a major giant-killing in the first round, his reward will be a second round match against the winner of Preston’s match.
Harry Ellis became the youngest-ever winner of the English Amateur at just 16 in 2012 – breaking Sir Nick Faldo’s record. Picture ENGLAND GOLF
Hampshire have a fine record in the competition – won by the likes of Ryder Cup trio Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood and Danny Willett since the late 1990s – five county amateurs have reached the final since 1989, including Hampshire’s own Ryder Cup star Steve Richardson, from Lee-on-the-Solent, whose win at Royal St George’s sparked the future generations’ success.
Two-time US Seniors Major winner Richard Bland lost in the 1993 final, while Meon Valley’s Harry Ellis broke Sir Nick Faldo’s record as the youngest-ever English Amateur Champion, claiming the crown as a 16-year-old in 2012.
•Follow live scoring in the first round of the English Amateur Championship