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Ireland’s Conor Purcell has become the latest leading amateur to announce he has turned professional.
The 22-year-old from Portmarnock made his professional debut in Australia at last week’s AVJennings NSW Open at Twin Creeks Golf and Country Club, 50 kilometres west of Sydney, where he made the cut after a superb second-round 67. He went on to finish tied 29th after a pair of 70s on the weekend.
The Irish Walker Cup player now heads to this week’s Emirates Australian Open at the Australian Golf Club in the suburbs of Sydney, having earned an exemption by winning the Australian Amateur Championship at Woodlands Golf Club in January.
Purcell made the decision to turn professional after learning he did not have to remain an amateur to compete against the likes of Adam Scott, Sergio García, Paul Casey and Louis Oosthuizen in the Australian Open.
“I had the two events here and found out recently that I could avail (myself) of the exemptions if I wanted to play them as a pro,” he told my Global Golf Post colleague, Brian Keogh. “So, I had a sit-down and thought what I wanted to do with my career and the coming year.
“I had the option to stay amateur a bit longer but felt this was a good place to start considering the success I had at the start of the year. Everything is feeling good and I’m excited to get going.”
Purcell’s extra-time victory against Nathan Barbieri at the Australian Amateur got his season off to a fast start. He subsequently finished second in both the Irish Amateur Open and the West of Ireland and fifth in the South African Stroke Play before his form dipped during the summer.
He was not at his best while part of the Great Britain & Ireland team which lost to the United States in the Walker Cup in September, but he bounced back by producing four victories as Ireland finished third behind England and Scotland at the subsequent Men’s Home Internationals at Lahinch. He now looks forward to emulating his friend Robert MacIntyre, the Scotsman who has progressed from the Mena Tour and the Challenge Tour to claiming this year’s Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award on the European Tour.
“It’s nice to see people you have played amateur golf with start to do well,” he said. “You can then start to compare yourself and relate to their standard. If they are able to achieve it, then there is nothing to stop you from doing the same.”
Purcell became the fourth member of the 2019 Walker Cup team to turn professional after Euan Walker, Harry Hall and Tom Sloman all made the switch in the aftermath of the biennial match against the Americans.
Walker earned full status on next year’s Challenge Tour after playing all six rounds of the recent European Tour Final Q-School in Spain while Hall will be bidding for a place on next year’s Korn Ferry Tour in the US after reaching the Final Stage of its Q-School to be staged next week at Orange County National in Florida. Sloman will start on the mini-tours after failing to reach the final stage of Q-School in Spain.
Ben Schmidt is the top-ranked player in a new-look England men’s squad for the 2020 season.
The 17-year-old from Barnsley – who plays out of Rotherham Golf Club and has risen to No. 6 in the world following a spectacular season during which he won the Brabazon Trophy, the Carris Trophy, the Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship and the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters – is the youngest member of a nine-strong squad that also includes 18-year-old Robin Williams (Peterbough Milton), 20-year-olds Tom Plumb (Yeovil) and Charlie Strickland (Ham Manor), 21-year-olds Ben Jones (Northamptonshire County), Jake Bolton (Ogbourne Downs), Callum Farr (Northamptonshire County) and Matty Lamb (Hexham), plus Joe Long (Lansdown), who at 22 is the oldest member of the group.
Strickland makes a welcome return to the England Golf setup after battling a serious health issue.
Bolton, Farr and Long have graduated from an England “A” squad which has had an almost complete makeover with the inclusion of Sam Bairstow (Hallowes), Harry Goddard (Hanbury Manor), Arron Edwards-Hill (Chelmsford), Sam Broadhurst (Atherstone), Jack Brooks (Mere), Max Martin (Harborne), Charlie Thornton (Fulford) and Joe Harvey (Kendleshire).
Goddard, 19, is the only returning player from last year’s “A” squad. North of Ireland champion Edwards-Hill is the youngest member of the new group at 18 while Bairstow and Thornton are 21, Broadhurst, Martin and Harvey are all 22 and Brooks is the oldest at 28.
World No 3 Conor Gough, the winner of this year’s English Amateur at Hankley Common, remains in the England Boys’ squad because he is still in full-time education.
Six members of the “A” squad will represent their country in January’s Costa Bellena Octangular match in Spain but before that Schmidt, Brooks, Jones, Martin and Thornton all are part of a large group of Englishmen competing later this month in the prestigious South Beach International Amateur at Miami Beach Golf Club and Normandy Shores Golf Club in Miami.
The organisers of that event anticipate the field to be the fifth-strongest of the year behind only the US Amateur, the Amateur Championship, the Western Amateur and the NCAA Division I Championship, with competitors coming from almost 30 countries around the world.
The England Golf squad announcement was made just a couple of days after the organisation held its 2019 Performance Awards at Woodhall Spa during which its elite squad coach, Graham Walker, was named as coach of the year. Walker also coaches Tommy Fleetwood.
England’s senior women’s manager, Debbie Richards, who led her team to victory at the European Senior Women’s Team Championship before retiring, was recognised as volunteer of the year while a lifetime achievement award went to Roy Smethurst, who claimed four English Senior titles and a European Senior crown as a player before becoming England senior men’s team manager and leading squads to a European gold medal and three Home International titles in the last four seasons.
Two of Europe’s finest female amateurs are among the first players to enter the Ladies European Tour’s Final Q-School to be played for a fifth time over the North and South courses at La Manga in southern Spain in late January.
Germany’s Leonie Harm and Slovenia’s Pia Babnik are both exempt from pre-qualifying at the same venue because they hold down places within the top 25 on the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking.
Harm became the first German to claim the Women’s British Amateur title when she beat American Stephanie Lau, 3 and 2, in the final of the 2018 championship at Hillside and she has since risen to No. 5 in the world ranking thanks in large part to a series of victories while representing the University of Houston on the US collegiate circuit.
Babnik was just 15 when she demolished the field at this year’s Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open at Troon Portland and Royal Troon and she went on to secure further victories in the stroke-play qualifier at the European Ladies’ Team Championship and the R&A Girls’ Amateur before rounding off her season with a remarkable 18-shot victory in the Evolve Spanish Junior Girls’ Championship. After those successes and a series of other high finishes, she ended the 2019 season at a career-high seventh place on the women’s WAGR.
The Final Q-School is to be played on 22-26 January just a week after the qualification process starts with a pre-qualifier at the same venue on 15-18 January.
Former Curtis Cup player India Clyburn of England, 2018 English Women’s Amateur champion Georgina Blackman and reigning Scottish champion Kimberley Beveridge are among the sizeable group of players who have entered as amateurs. The 2019 European Women’s Amateur champion Alice Hewson, who recently turned pro, is also in the field have recently earned Symetra Tour status at the LPGA Q-Series in Florida.
Adrien Pendariès, who was part of the French team which won a gold medal at the recent Spirit International Golf Championship in Texas, is on top of the first International ranking for the 2020 Arnold Palmer Cup, to be played at Lahinch in Ireland next July.
The 20-year-old Duke University junior from Neuilly-sur-Seine holds a slender lead ahead of Scottish Walker Cup player Sandy Scott (Texas Tech), with the rest of the top-10 comprising Australia’s Jack Trent (UNLV), Canada’s Matthew Anderson (San Francisco), Denmark’s John Axelsen (Florida), Ireland’s Mark Power (Wake Forest), China’s Lin Yuxin (Southern California), Malaysia’s Bryan Wiyang Teoh (UCLA), Sweden’s Pontus Nyholm (Campbell) and Norway’s William Buhl (Arkansas).
Power has made it all the way up to sixth place on the first ranking despite only having enrolled at Wake Forest in September. Since then, the two-time Irish Open Boys champion from Kilkenny has claimed his first collegiate title in the stroke-play event at the East Lake Cup and completed the fall season with three consecutive top-10 finishes.
It is no real surprise that the first women’s international ranking is dominated by Asian players with China’s Angeline Ye (Stanford) topping the list ahead of Thailand’s Pimnipa Panthong (Kent State) and Ye’s compatriot Sophie Guo (Texas). However, Sweden’s Linn Grant (Arizona State), and France’s Pauline Roussin-Bouchard (South Carolina) hold down fourth and fifth places ahead of another Swede, Ingrid Lindblad (LSU), who is 10th, and Norway’s Karoline Stormo, who is one place further behind.
The top six players on both the men’s and women’s rankings at the end of the qualification process earn automatic places in the International team for the match in Ireland while the remaining six men and six women will comprise five picks and the winners of the R&A Foundation Scholars tournament in St Andrews. The next ranking will be announced on 20 February.
Ludvig Åberg will return home to Sweden full of festive cheer after competing an impressive wire-to-wire victory in the Sun Bowl Marathon All-America Golf Classic at the El Paso Country Club in Texas.
The Texas Tech freshman opened the event with a 9-under-par 62, which included a back nine of 28, and he went on to card a 66 and a 72 to finish four shots ahead of German European Amateur champion Matthias Schmid on 13-under par 200. Zan Luka Stirn from Slovenia was tied third, one shot further back, after shooting a 63 in the second round.
“My putting was really strong, especially in the first round,” Aberg told the El Paso Times. “Overall, I felt like I played well and had a good effort. Putting was something I really wanted to be better at and I felt good with that part of my game. I really liked this course. As a golfer, you can be aggressive from the tee.
“Everyone here was great and it definitely helped me stay loose during the tournament.”
Åberg started his 2019 season by finishing second behind Scotland’s Walker in the African Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Leopard Creek.
Josh Hill’s hopes of claiming a second Mena Tour title in the space of a month were dashed following a disappointing last round at the Journey to Jordan Tour Championship at the Ayla Golf Club in Jordan.
The English teenager, who became the youngest winner of an Official World Golf Ranking-recognised event by winning the Al Ain Open aged just 15, held a one-shot lead after opening rounds of 66 and 69 but dropped back into a share of ninth place after closing with a 76.
It was still enough for the Dubai-based youngster to top the tour’s Amateur Journey to Jordan (order of merit), which earned him a place in next month’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic on the European Tour.
The prospect of lining up against the top European Tour players more than made up for the disappointment of being unable to secure a second Mena Tour title of the season.
“I am very excited and looking forward to playing in the Dubai Desert Classic,” he said. “I have been to every tournament since I was 5 or 6 years old and remember being amazed by the number of people who walked with Tiger Woods’ group when I was there the first time.
“It has been an amazing season for me and one in which I have learned a lot playing against the professionals on the MENA Tour,” he added. “I think I have grown as a player. I wanted to finish top 10 in at least a couple of tournaments but I have surpassed my expectations. The win at Al Ain was definitely the highlight of the season.”
The top five on the Amateur Journey to Jordan were (in order) Hill, Englishmen Williams, Jack Floydd and Curtis Knipes, and India’s Arjun Gupta.
E-MAIL COLIN