{{ubiquityData.prevArticle.description}}
{{ubiquityData.nextArticle.description}}
Scotland’s Stuart Wilson has been named as Great Britain & Ireland’s captain for this year’s St Andrews Trophy at Royal Porthcawl and next year’s Walker Cup at Seminole.
The 42-year-old from Forfar succeeds compatriot Craig Watson as captain after spending three years as chairman of the R&A Boys’ Selection Committee and captaining the last three GB&I Jacques Léglise Trophy boys’ teams.
The highlight during that period came in 2018 when he led his team to a 15½-9½ victory at Kytäjä Golf in Finland although that result was reversed when the Continent of Europe won by the same scoreline last summer at Aldeburgh Golf Club in England.
Wilson also has led the European Junior Ryder Cup team on two occasions, first at Olympia Fields in 2012 and then again at Blairgowrie two years later, but lost to the Americans on both occasions.
The Scot enjoyed a glittering career as an amateur in the early 2000s. He was never the longest of hitters but that did not stop him from defeating future Open champion Francesco Molinari in the quarter-finals on his way to winning the 2004 Amateur Championship at St Andrews and then a few weeks later claiming the Silver Medal as leading amateur at the Open Championship at Royal Troon, where he finished in a share of 63rd place.
That was his second appearance at the Open, having missed the cut after qualifying for the 2001 championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes. He also won the 2003 Lytham Trophy and later that year contributed two points as GB&I defeated the US in the Walker Cup at Ganton. That haul included a win and a halve in an unbeaten foursomes partnership with David Inglis plus a half point against Matt Hendrix in the first singles series. He lost to the same player the following afternoon.
He was an R&A scholar while studying at Abertay University in Dundee and during that time represented Europe in the Arnold Palmer Cup on two occasions.
Wilson is currently managing secretary at his home club at Forfar, 10 miles inland from Carnoustie.
“I am very proud to be selected as the GB&I men’s team captain and look forward to leading a talented group of golfers at the St Andrews Trophy and the Walker Cup,” Wilson said. “I have fond memories of my time as a player representing GB&I in these prestigious matches and am determined to make a valuable contribution to the team as its leader and in helping the players.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my time on the R&A Boys’ Selection Committee and know firsthand the level of talent which is emerging. It feels like a very natural progression to be taking on this role.”
GB&I currently holds neither the St Andrews Trophy nor the Walker Cup but Wilson’s first chance to change that will come July 23-24 when his team faces the Continent of Europe at the St Andrews Trophy in Wales, before travelling to Florida for the Walker Cup match the following May.
It is likely the Scot also will return as captain for the 2022 St Andrews Trophy before bowing out after leading the GB&I team Walker Cup team for a second time in front of his home fans at St Andrews in 2023.
Irish international Ronan Mullarney turned professional during the middle of last month and made his professional debut at the Alps Tour Qualifying School at La Cala where rounds of 72 and 74 were enough for him to finish in a share of 73rd place and earn a conditional card for the 2020 season.
“It was always the plan,” said the 24-year-old reigning AIG Irish Amateur Close champion from Galway, who a couple of months earlier suffered a setback when he failed to make it through the European Tour’s second-stage qualifier at Alenda Golf in Spain.
“There were loads of good reasons to remain amateur with the Flogas Irish Amateur at Galway this year, plus the chance to play in the US Amateur and make the Eisenhower Trophy or St Andrews Trophy teams but if you want to be a pro, go be a pro. I think it’s the quickest way to learn.
“The thing with the GUI (Golfing Union of Ireland) is that they are nearly too good to us,” he added. “It makes it a tougher decision. They really look after you but it was always my decision to turn pro, so it was time to fly the nest. You have to grow up at some stage.”
The leading amateur at this year’s Alps Tour Q-School was Englishman Laurie Owen, from Letchworth, who defied the wet weather which resulted in the second round being abandoned by posting scores of 69 and 67 to finish tied third in a group which also included former Scottish international Ryan Lumsden. The event was won by another Englishman, professional Bradley Bawden, who carded rounds of 63 and 71 to finish a single shot ahead of Portugal’s Tomás Guimarães Bessa on 9-under-par 134.
Tom Thurloway, the 2018 English Amateur champion from Chartham Park in Sussex, and former French international champion Jeong weon Ko were among the other amateurs to earn full cards for this year’s tour, which starts next month in Egypt and features 17 events.
England’s Matt Wallace won six times of the Alps Tour in 2016 before progressing first to the Challenge Tour and then to the European Tour, where he now has won four times to date.
England Golf has elected to appoint a golf insider as its new chief executive officer. After several attempts at bringing in a leader with a background in other sports, they have elected to appoint industry heavyweight Jeremy Tomlinson, who is a former Wiltshire captain and county player and has spent most of his life working within the game.
Tomlinson was the founding director of online golf retailer jamgolf.com and spent eight years working as a brand and sales manager for Callaway Golf Europe before becoming vice president and managing director of Acushnet Europe, where he was responsible for market-leading brands Titleist and FootJoy.
He also has been involved heavily in the development and promotion of the game at schools and community level as a trustee of the Golf Foundation.
“We are delighted to welcome Jeremy as our new chief executive,” said England Golf chairman Nic Coward. “His considerable business experience and his deep knowledge of golf at all levels will be a huge asset to England Golf and all the organisations involved in developing, promoting and running the sport across the country.”
“I’m honoured and excited to become the new chief executive officer of England Golf,” said Tomlinson, a member of the Marlborough Golf Club. “To be joining a talented team with so many opportunities to positively affect the game is hugely energising.”
Tomlinson, who replaces Nick Pink, who has taken up a similar role with England Hockey, used to play in the same Wiltshire County team as David Howell and more recently qualified for the 2017 Senior Open Championship at Royal Porthcawl won by Bernhard Langer.
Conor Gough has given British and Irish golf a big boost by announcing he has no intention of turning professional ahead of the 2021 Walker Cup at Seminole in Florida.
The 17-year-old reigning English Amateur champion made his debut last year at Royal Liverpool and has set his sights on being part of Wilson’s team as it bids to regain the trophy on foreign soil in 18 months’ time.
“I’m 100 percent sure that I won’t be turning pro before the Walker Cup in 2021, no matter what my results are like this year,” said the English teenager, who is currently studying for A-Levels in sociology, sports science and business at St Joseph’s College in Berkshire. “I just want to do as much as I can as an amateur. There’s no rush to turn pro, I’m only 17.
“Right now, I don’t need to think about anything other than getting up in the morning to go to school, practise after school and then play in my competitions.
“It doesn’t need to be complicated. I have to keep it simple and keep on winning.”
That is something the Stoke Park player has been very successful in doing ever since he won the British Boys’ Championship and McGregor Trophy in 2018 and he moved up a gear in August last year with his victory against Callum Farr in the final of the English Amateur at Hankley Common.
Gough had missed much of the earlier part of the season studying for his GCSEs so he knew he had to do something special to catch the eye of the Walker Cup selectors.
“I was very focussed on what I had to do that week,” he said. “I feel like every time I have to do something big, I focus in a different way. I was playing very, very well and I had one outcome in mind. I didn’t put myself under pressure, but I knew I could win.”
While Gough heads back to school after the festive break, his fellow teenager Ben Schmidt, the reigning Brabazon Trophy and Carris Trophy champion, will be starting his new season Down Under.
The 17-year-old Schmidt (Rotherham) is part of a mixed seven-strong English national squad also comprising Northamptonshire County’s Farr and Ben Jones, Tom Plumb (Yeovil), Matty Lamb (Hexham), Emily Toy (Carlyon Bay) and Charlotte Heath (Huddersfield) taking part in four major events in less than a month.
That sequence starts at this week’s Australian Master of the Amateurs tournament at the Victoria Golf Club near Melbourne (January 7-10), where other European entries include compatriots Harvey Byers, Callan Barrow and Michael Farr; Welshman Jake Hapgood; Ireland’s Eugene Smith and Tom McKibbin; France’s Ariane Klotz; Germany’s Lukas Buller, Philipp Katich, Marc Hammer, Laurenz Schiergen and Frederik Schott; and Australian-based Scot Connor McKinney.
Next up is the Australian Amateur at Royal Queensland (January 14-19) and the New South Wales Amateur at St Michael’s Golf Club and the Coast Golf Club in Little Bay (January 20-24) before the group make their final appearance of the tour in the Avondale Amateur at Avondale Golf Club (January 28-31).
Jones finished 2019 in fine form by carding a closing 67 to climb up into fifth place against a strong international field at the South Beach International Amateur at the Miami Beach Golf Club in Florida.
The top European amateurs used to start their seasons around April but not any longer. Elsewhere, 2019 Scottish stroke play champion Jake Bolton (Ogbourne Downs) also makes an early start to his 2020 campaign as part of another mixed English squad competing this week in the South American men’s and women’s amateurs at Sport Francés Club de Golf on the outskirts of the Chilean capital Santiago. He will be joined there by Joe Long (Lansdown), Caley McGinty (Knowle) and Mimi Rhodes (Burnham & Berrow).
Thanks to funding from the R&A there will a sizeable group of international players in Chile which also will include Scottish Curtis Cup player Shannon McWilliam, Welsh duo Darcey Harry and Ffion Tynan and Irish international John Murphy.
Twelve months ago, Plumb finished one shot outside a play-off for the championship won by Canadian defending champion Chris Crisologo against Costa Rican Luis Gagne. Paraguay’s María Fernanda Escauriza secured a wire-to-wire victory in the women’s event.
E-MAIL COLIN