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England’s Harry Goddard produced a late birdie burst to storm to victory in the Portuguese Men’s International Championship at Montado.
The 20-year-old from Hanbury Manor was one shot behind Portugal’s Pedro Lencart Silva and Spain’s Eduard Rousaud after opening rounds of 71, 65 and 67, and still adrift of the leaders before making four birdies in his last five holes. With a closing 66, Goddard clinched a one-stroke victory on 19-under-par 269.
The win was the biggest of Goddard’s career and extended a sterling run for England Golf players to date this season. Charlotte Heath won the Australian Women’s Amateur and subsequently made the cut at the Australian Women’s Open, Ben Schmidt beat Callum Farr in an all-English final at the New South Wales Amateur and the English team beat Ireland in the deciding match at the annual Octagonal International Match at Costa Ballena in Spain.
British champion Emily Toy also got her hands on some silverware by leading the stroke-play qualifier at the Australian Women’s Amateur before reaching the last four of the New South Wales Women’s Championship.
Goddard started his final round with birdies on his opening two holes and then also picked up shots on the fourth and the seventh to race to the turn in 32. He dropped shots at both the 12th and 13th but then stormed home with birdies on the 14th, 15th and 16th before claiming the biggest title of his career in some style with a birdie 2 on the last.
“I didn’t know at the time my putt on 18 was for the win,” Goddard said. “I thought I would have to hole it to get in a play-off. But as it turned out my nearest two rivals could only manage a par and a bogey at the last and my score was good enough to win.
“I’m thrilled to get over the line. I had a chance to win the Lytham Trophy last year but came up just short and it feels as if a win has been a long time coming.
“To win this event is really special. I hope I can kick on now and enjoy a really good year.”
Rousaud and Lencart Silva both posted closing 68s and finished one stroke ahead of Stan Kraai from the Netherlands and four in front of another Englishman, Joshua Bristow.
Two birdies in his last three holes helped Bristow to card a closing 67 and finish one stroke ahead of Germany’s Luc Breuer, Spain’s Joel Moscatel, Finland’s Jaapo Jämsä and Herman Wibe Sekne from Norway.
Ireland’s Caolan Rafferty produced a late charge to climb up into third place behind runaway winner Casey Jarvis at the South African Stroke Play Championship at Randpark Firethorn.
Rafferty, a Walker Cup player from Dundalk, carded a 65 in the third round and then fired five birdies over his closing 10 holes to post a 67 and finish just one stroke behind second-placed Kyle de Beer on 15-under 273.
This year’s event produced several other notable Irish performances with Amateur champion James Sugrue closing with a 68 to finish sixth on 276 and Holywood teenager Tom McKibbin carding a 67 to claim a share of seventh place alongside compatriot Rowan Lester, with South Africa’s Amilkar Bhana and English duo Joe Long and Haider Hussain, one shot further behind.
The highlight of the championship for McKibbin was a superb 8-under-par 64 in the third round but it was a different story for Lester, who was second on the leaderboard at the halfway stage after opening rounds of 66 and 67 but then lost ground with a 69 before closing with a 75 that included five bogeys and a double bogey on short par-4 13th.
There also were top-20 finishes for England’s Sam Bairstow (T12); Dutch pair Kiet van der Weele and Koen Kouwenaar (both T12); and their countryman Nordin van Tilburg, Ireland’s Matthew McClean and France’s Nicolas Muller (all T20). But nobody could keep up with Jarvis, who supplanted Dale Hayes as the youngest winner of the championship at the age of 16 years, 6 months and 17 days. Hayes was 16 years, 8 months old when he won the inaugural championship at Humewood in 1969.
Jarvis, from State Mines Country Club in Brakpan, began the championship with a 66 that left him two shots out of the lead held by Scotland’s James Wilson but then took control with rounds of 65 and 67 before sealing his first major international success with another 65 in the final round to finish nine shots ahead of de Beer on 25-under 263.
The youngster had Nick Price’s onetime caddie, Tiger Lekhune, on his bag, just as he had done when he won the Joburg Junior Open at Randpark last December and then again at the same course when he finished tied for 36th against the professionals at last month’s South African Open.
“My dad always carries for me and we’ve won some big ones but Tiger took the bag at the Joburg Junior Open and the SA Open so I asked him to caddie for me again this week,” Jarvis explained. “He’s been at Randpark for more than 25 years and he reads the greens better than anyone I know.
“He’s also good at calming me down. I am very fast. I walk fast, hit fast and putt fast. Because he is slower, he slows me down. It actually helps me to focus. He is so experienced and knows when to speak up and when to back off. It’s been a great week for us.
“This has been a dream,” he added. “To win the SA Stroke Play is the best achievement of my career. It was a magic week where I really played my best golf and got rewarded for it.”
Jarvis and the leading European players now will shift their focus to this week’s South African Amateur Championship at Royal Johannesburg and Kensington, where the teenaged South African will start among the favourites to claim another of his country’s national titles.
“If I can play well in the qualifier and win it, it will put me in a good position for the match play,” he said. “I love Royal Johannesburg and Kensington, it’s one of my favourite courses, so taking a game this solid to the SA Amateur feels really good.”
England’s Max O’Hagan produced a near-faultless performance to clinch the second victory of his collegiate career at the Matlock Collegiate Classic at Lone Palm Golf Club in Lakeland, Florida.
The Florida Tech senior from Surrey led the field by five shots after opening rounds of 69 and 66 and then closed with a 67 to cruise to a nine-shot victory ahead of Columbus State’s Jordan Doull on 14-under 202.
O’Hagan made 15 birdies during the three days and dropped just one shot to par when he bogeyed the 13th hole of his opening round. His performance also helped his college claim second place in the team event behind Doull and his Columbus State teammates.
The Englishman produced the standout European performance on last week’s collegiate circuit but there also were strong showings elsewhere from Irish Curtis Cup player Olivia Mehaffey, her compatriot John Murphy, Germany’s Monika Hartl and Belgium’s Giovanni Tadiotto.
Arizona State senior Mehaffey narrowly missed out on securing her fifth individual collegiate title when she carded rounds of 70, 68 and 70 to finish tied second, a single shot behind Auburn’s Kaleigh Telfer, in the Northrop Grumman Regional Challenge at Palos Verdes Golf Club in California.
There were top-10 finishes in the same event for Italy’s Emilie Paltrinieri, who was fourth, Slovenia’s Ana Belac, who was tied for fifth, and Austria’s Emma Spitz, who was in the group sharing seventh place. Mehaffey’s Italian teammate Alessandra Fanali also made her mark by closing with a best-of-the-day 66 to jump 22 places into a tie for 12th place in a group that also included Oregon freshman Sofie Kibsgaard Nielsen from Denmark.
North Carolina State junior Hartl, from Bamberg, also had a near miss after firing a career-low final round of 67 to finish one shot behind Northwestern’s Irene Kim in the Lady Puerto Rico Classic at Rio Mar. Her compatriot, Anni Eisenhut, a freshman at Indiana, was sixth while Denmark’s Rikke Svejgård Neilson, a junior at Kentucky, finished in a tie for eighth place alongside Texas Tech freshman Gala Dumez from France.
Murphy (Louisville) and Tadiotto (Illinois) finished in a share of fourth place behind world No. 10 John Pak (Florida State) in the Mobile Sports Authority Intercollegiate at Magnolia Grove Crossings Golf Course in Alabama. Both players closed with 69s to finish seven shots adrift of the winner. Germany’s Matthias Schmid (Louisville) and England’s Jamie Li (Florida State) were one shot further behind in the group sharing eighth place.
English women’s champion Ellen Hume has announced she is to transfer to a new US college this summer.
The 20-year-old from Hertfordshire will leave Charleston Southern at the end of the 2019-20 season and move to the University of Mississippi after the summer break. The move brings to an end a two-year stint at Charleston Southern during which she was selected for the Big South All-Freshman and All-Conference teams during her debut campaign before going on to claim her first collegiate title at the Terrier Intercollegiate last October. Currently she has the second-best scoring average (72.44) in the Big South rankings.
“We are excited to welcome Ellen to the Ole Miss family,” said the college’s women’s head coach, Kory Henkes. “She brings a wealth of collegiate and international playing experience to our team. She has aspirations not only to take her game to the next level within the college ranks, but as a professional as well.
“Ellen’s work ethic and drive will mesh well with our current team and collectively help us reach our goals. We look to Ellen to be an immediate impact player as soon as she sets foot on campus as an Ole Miss Rebel.”
Last summer Hume claimed the English national title after beating Lily May Humphreys on the 19th hole of a wet and windy final at Saunton. She also won the West of England Championship before going on to be part of the English team that won the Women’s Home Internationals at Downfield.
Hume’s decision to switch colleges came just a couple of months after her Hertfordshire colleague Hannah Screen transferred from the University of Houston to the University of Oklahoma in time for the start of the spring season.
Scottish Golf has announced a revamp to its Medal Finals which will enable men and women to compete alongside each other for the chance to represent their country at an international Grand Final in Portugal.
Affiliated clubs will be invited to enter three of its top performing net players from the 2019 into one of six Regional Finals taking place in May, June and July.
At the Regional Finals the male and female competitors will play alongside each other with the top six net scorers from both sexes earning a place in a Grand Final to be played at the Dukes course on the outskirts of St Andrews on Saturday, August 22.
The winning male and female competitors in that event will progress to an international event being played in conjunction with the European Tour’s GolfSixes tournament at Oitavos Dunes in Cascais in May 2021.
“We see bringing the Men’s and Women’s Scottish Medal Finals together as a natural and hugely positive step and one which has allowed us to really raise the bar in terms of player experience and prizes,” said Scottish Golf’s head of events, Fraser Munro.
The new-look Scottish Medal Finals is one of three mixed events on this year’s Scottish Golf schedule with clubs also able to enter the R&A 9-Hole Challenge and the Ping Scottish Mixed Championship. The Scottish Grand Final of the former is to be played once again at Milnathort on June 11-12, where the top four teams will book places to compete against fellow qualifiers from Australia, England, Ireland, Wales and New Zealand in the R&A 9-Hole Challenge Final being played over Royal St George’s on the eve of the 149th Open Championship.
The top-40 qualifiers from a national leaderboard will qualify for the Grand Final of the Ping Scottish Mixed Championship at Gullane No. 1 on September 23.
E-MAIL COLIN