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Japan’s Keita Nakajima returns to the No 1 spot in the World Amateur Golf Ranking following a second-place finish in the Token Homemade Cup on the Japan Golf Tour. It is his third consecutive top-10 on that tour, and helps him move 10 places to replace American Pierceson Coody, who spent one week as the world’s top amateur.
Nakajima became just the third Japanese male to hold the world No 1 spot when he first gained the ranking for 12 weeks last November. Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama became No 1 in 2010, while Takumi Kanaya held the top ranking last year before turning professional. Kanaya defeated Nakajima by a shot to win the Token Homemade Cup.
The new Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course on the Ury Estate, near Stonehaven in the northeast of Scotland, is set to open in summer 2024.
Preparatory work is underway after a lengthy hiatus following the developer, the FM Group, being granted initial planning approval to build the course in 2006.
The new course is part of an £80 million development that also includes transforming the B-Listed Ury House into apartments and building more than 200 houses.
The course will be the first in the UK to be branded with the Nicklaus name. Members will have access to the designer’s two US home courses, the Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Florida, and Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.
Thirty-five associate club members will also receive reciprocity at other Jack Nicklaus Golf Clubs as well as access to a Nicklaus Home to be established at the Ury Estate, and all the other JNGC clubs worldwide.
“People in Scotland have always been fantastic to me, and whether I have visited as a player or a golf course designer, I have always been warmly welcomed every time,” Nicklaus said in a news release on his design company’s website. “It has always been a very special place for me to play golf, and I look forward to the opportunity given to me by FM Developments to create a memorable golf experience at Ury Estate that my family and each member of the Jack Nicklaus Golf Club can enjoy for many years to come.”
FM Developments director Richard Milne said: “Jack’s vision and creativity will bring the course to life and will place Ury Estate among the elite luxury clubs in the world.”
Thailand’s defence of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Golf Team Championship has been put on hold for another year.
The 29th Nomura Cup was originally due to be played in November 2019 at Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club in Hong Kong, but it was rescheduled to June 2020 due to unrest and riots there. Then COVID-19 intervened, prompting another delay until June 2021.
Now, because of travel restrictions, the organising committee – with members from Clearwater Bay, the Asia-Pacific Golf Confederation, and the Hong Kong Golf Association – has postponed the championship until 2022.
“For one week of golf, it would have taken up five weeks of time for a large number of competitors. The organising committee felt this was not viable,” said John Hopkins, the APGC’s Championship Committee chairman. “The priority of the APGC is the safety of all the players, delegates and staff that will be participating and attending any of our tournaments. The APGC remains committed to staging the Nomura Cup together with the Hong Kong Golf Association at the Clearwater Bay Golf & Country Club in 2022.”
In 2017, Thai quartet Kammalas Namuangruk, Atiruj Winaicharoenchai, Kosuke Hamamoto and Sadom Kaewkanjana made history when they secured their country’s first victory in the competition at Sungai Long Golf & Country Club in Malaysia. Until then, Australia and Japan had dominated the event. Australia has won 10 times, with Japan having seven wins.
The R&A will stage its first overseas qualifier for the 2021 Senior Open, which was cancelled last year because of COVID-19.
The Tom Fazio-designed West Course at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, will play host to the event on 21 June. Three other qualifiers will be held at Bearwood Lakes, Burhill and Hindhead in England on 19 July.
This year’s championship returns to the Old Course at Sunningdale on 22-25 July.
Tournament director David Williams said: “We have chosen four fine golf courses to stage the qualifying events for the Senior Open in 2021 and they will provide a true test of golf for the hundreds of players aiming to earn a spot at Sunningdale.
“We thank our friends at PGA Tour Champions for their support in helping us stage a qualifier in the United States as we provide the best opportunity to American golfers to take part in this prestigious championship.”
A record 591 players entered the 2018 qualifying events, while 525 golfers fought for 49 places at the 2019 Senior Open at Royal Lytham & St Annes.
Angus Flanagan will head to next month’s Walker Cup at Seminole Golf Club full of confidence after claiming his second successive collegiate title. The Englishman won the Husker Invitational at Firethorn Golf Course in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Flanagan, in his final year at the University of Minnesota, closed with a 5-under-par 66 to claim a one-shot victory ahead of Kansas State’s Tim Tillmanns and Michigan State’s Troy Taylor II just a week after winning the Boilermaker Invitational in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Flanagan’s latest victory moves him three places on the World Amateur Golf Ranking to 40th. In an interview with The Minnesota Daily, in which he recounted how, on a previous visit to Seminole, head pro Bob Ford persuaded him to sign for Minnesota.
“It has always been a goal of mine to have four years of school and then play the Walker Cup during my senior year,” Flanagan said. “I was at Seminole in 2016 playing with my dad and we met the head pro there and that’s actually how I ended up playing at Minnesota. So, it’s a funny story how Seminole got me to Minnesota, and now that’s where I’m going to play the Walker Cup. It’s come full circle.
“In theory, Seminole should suit us guys from back home because we can hit the ball low and we’ve played a bunch of wind golf before,” he added.
Caitlyn Macnab became the first amateur in 14 years to win on the Sunshine Ladies Tour when she closed with a 67 to complete an eight-shot victory in the Jabra Ladies Classic at Glendower Golf Club in South Africa.
The 19-year-old reigning South African Women’s Amateur champion followed in the footsteps of Ashleigh Buhai (née Simon) who claimed her second South African Women’s Open title as an amateur in 2007. Macnab earns a place at this year’s Jabra Open, a dual-ranking LET and LET Access Series event and a qualifying tournament for this year’s fourth major, the Amundi Evian Championship in France.
“It’s awesome, it’s such a great feeling,” Macnab said. “I won the SA Women’s Open Stroke Play and the Match Play twice and I’ve represented South Africa a few times, but this ranks right up there with my greatest achievements. I’m over the moon, because this is huge for me.”
Macnab will travel to the United States in August to start a golf scholarship at Texas Christian University.
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