SUTTON-IN-ASHFIELD, England (Aug. 16, 2012) --Ashton Turner was up with the larks this morning but his early start did not prevent the 16 year-old from Kenwick Park in Lincolnshire battling through to the second round of the 86th Boys’ Amateur Championship at Notts (Hollinwell).
Turner was one of two golfers who had to return to Coxmoor at 7.00 am this morning to complete his rain-delayed second qualifying round but once he had cleared that hurdle he went on to defeat great friend and England Boys’ squad colleague, Haydn McCullen, by 4&3 in the first round of match play.
The Lincolnshire youngster will now play Denmark’s Emil Soegaard in tomorrow morning’s third round.
“This morning I had to get up at 4.45 am and when we got to the Coxmoor the cleaner had to let us into clubhouse and get us some balls so I could warm up,” he said.
“It was an early start but it has been worth it,” he added. “It’s just a shame it was Haydn I had to play because he’s a great friend of mine.”
Turner got off to a great start when he won the 381-yard par-4 1st with a birdie and then went two up on the 582-yard 6th where he had a 10-foot putt for an eagle three. He doubled his lead when he won both the 360-yard par-4 11th and the 474-yard par-4 12th and closed out the match when his opponent drove into the rough and failed to make his par on the 439-yard par-4 15th.
“I played very solidly,” said Turner, who was part of the Lincolnshire team that won the English Boys’ County Finals in 2011. “I think I was two or three-under-par when we finished. If I continue playing like that, I think I have a chance.”
Austrian, Mattias Schwab, came into the Championship as one of the favourites to claim the title after reaching the final of the recent Amateur Championship at Royal Troon and he joined Turner in the last 32 with a 4&3 victory over Italy’s Gianmaria Rean Trinchero. Schwab goes on to play Yannik Paul, from Germany, whose twin brother, Jeremy, reached the semi-finals of last year’s Championship at Burnham & Berrow before losing to eventual winner, Harrison Greenberry.
Renato Paratore, from Italy, the winner of the recent European Young Masters tournament in Hungary, leading qualifier Romain Langasque and top home hopes, Toby Tree, Nick Marsh, Jack Singh-Brar and Max Orrin all made it through to the last 32 but one favourite who saw his challenge come to an end was France’s Kenny Subregis.
The 16 year-old Frenchman topped the leaderboard at last year’s Qualifying at Burnham & Berrow, and has since established himself as one of Europe’s leading junior golfers, but on a bright and breezy day marred by brief intermittent showers he went out to English boy international, Matt Fitzpatrick, from Hallamshire. Fitzpatrick, who was third behind Patrick Kelly at the recent Carris Trophy, won 4&3 and goes on to play Italian, Luigi Botta, for a place in the last 16.
Kelly, last year’s losing finalist, came into the Championship as arguably the most in-form player in the field after wins in the Carris and Fairhaven Trophies and earning 5 ½ points out of six at last week’s Boys’ Home Internationals at County Louth. He carded rounds of 72 and 71 in the stroke play stage at Notts and Coxmoor but then ran out of steam against Brocket Hall’s Nick Ward in the second round. The end came when the 17 year-old from Hertfordshire sealed victory with a birdie on the first extra hole. Ward will play fellow Englishman, Oscar Granstrom-Livesey, from Royal Mid-Surrey, who was a 4&3 victor over Scottish Boys’ Stroke Play champion, Greig Marchbank, from Dumfries & County.
Another of the more established players to lose in the first round was 18 year-old German international, Max Mehles, who lost on the 20th to Englishman, Will Whiteoak.
18 year-old Whiteoak, from Bingley St Ives, West Yorkshire, was tied for the lead alongside Langasque after carding a four-under-par 68 in the first round of stroke play on Tuesday and he was two up against his illustrious German opponent after the 15th before losing both the 16th and 17th. The Englishman got up-and-down out of greenside bunker to extend the match on the 18th and then claimed a place against Frenchman, Nicolas Manifacier, in the third round when he holed from 15-feet for a birdie on the 20thhole.
Frenchman, Pierre Mazier, was penalised for slow play in his match against Jacopo Guasconi. The Frenchman was given a bad time on the 9th tee and then when he infringed the guidelines for a second time over a putt on the 14th he was deemed to have lost the hole under the Rules governing the match play format.
Mazier went on to defeat his Italian opponent by 3&2 and will now face Tree, who defeated Douglas Park’s Angus Carrick, the son of former Scottish international, David Carrick, by 4&3.
Local Coxmoor player, Joseph Hague, saw his hopes dashed when he lost 6&5 against James Rooney from West Lancs. Rooney now plays Scot, Jamie Savage, from Cawder, who beat Enville’s Ryan Cornfield by one hole.
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