The Amateurs of the 2011 Open Championship
11 Jul 2011
by AmateurGolf.com Staff
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SANDWICH, KENT, ENGLAND, (July 11,
2011) –– The third major of the
year is just a few days away and unlike the
U.S Open a few weeks ago, the British Open is
light on amateurs. Only three players
received exemptions from previous wins and
the other two earned their spots in
local/international qualifying.
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Lucas
Bjerregaard |
Craig Hinton
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Tom Lewis
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Bryden
Macpherson |
Peter
Uihlein |
Lucas Bjerregaard
Became only the second Danish player to win
the European Amateur Championship when he
shot a final round of 70 for a 15-under 273
total to win by a stroke over England's Tommy
Fleetwood and Italy's Andrea Pavan on the
Vanajanlinna course in Finland. Fellow
countryman Morten Backhausen beat Lee
Westwood in a playoff for the title in 1993.
Craig Hinton
Won Local Final Qualifying at Royal Cinque
Ports with rounds of 69-70 two years after
suffering a short period of blindness while
travelling in Spain with the England squad.
After a few days in hospital it took
eight months to recover fully. Then at
the Spanish Amateur early in 2011 he again
spent a week in intensive care with
myopericarditis, an inflammation of the
heart. "After everything, it is
unbelievable to be in The Open," he said.
Tom Lewis
A member of the Walker Cup squad, he won
International Final Qualifying at Rye with
rounds of 63-65. Winner of the Boys
Championship in 2009, he reached the last 16
of The Amateur this year and captured the St
Andrews Links Trophy.
Bryden Macpherson
The 20-year-old from Melbourne became only
the second Australian winner of the Amateur
Championship when he defeated Scotland's
Michael Stewart by 3 and 2 at Hillside, 57
years after Doug Bachli's victory over
America's Bill Campbell at Muirfield in
1954. A student at the University of
Georgia, Macpherson gained his place at Royal
St George's with his victory and said:
"The Open is my dream tournament and
if I could choose to win just one event in my
life, I'd chose that one." He was the
2009 New Zealand and Australian Strokeplay
Champion at 18 and reached the semi-final of
the 2011 Australian Amateur.
Peter Uihlein
Winner of the 2010 United States Amateur
Championship and a long-time holder of the
number one position on the World Amateur Golf
Ranking. He was a member of the
victorious American team that won the Walker
Cup match against Great Britain & Ireland
at Merion in 2009, winning all four of his
matches. His father is chief executive
officer of Achusnet, parent company of
Titleist.