Jack Cope wins St. Andrews Links Trophy
St. Andrews Links Trust photo
English Amateur champion
Jack Cope shot a final round 67 and then prevailed over reigning Scottish Amateur champion George Burns eventually over fellow Englishman Robin “Tiger” Williams on the fourth playoff hole to win the coveted St. Andrews Links Trophy Sunday on the Old Course.
All three golfers finished regulation at 8-under par, only one stroke clear of six others in a wild finish on the Old Course. Cope’s bogey free final round included birdies on the fourth, fifth, sixth, 10th and 18th holes while Burns, who won the Scottish Amateur championship two years ago on his home course at Crail, birdied the final hole in regulation to get into the playoff, but was the first to be eliminated.
Cope and Williams played on, with the 22-year old Englishman prevailing on the fourth playoff hole, the 18th, which he birdied all five times in competition by driving the green and two-putting.
“I’ve played in four play-offs in my life and lost every single one,” said Cope. “I was thinking my lucks got to change sometime. I feel I know how to win and having done that, and that (the English Amateur) being a big event, I wasn’t overawed by the situation.
“The play-off, I maybe played my best golf tee-to-green all week on those four holes. At the 18th, my strategy was to go for it every single time. I really committed to the shot and the last two were two of the best shots I hit all week.
“I particularly like the Old Course. You just walk around and think whose won here and played here. Playing four holes of play-off on the first and 18th, that’s two special golf holes to play.”
ABOUT THE St. Andrews Links Trophy
72-hole stroke play that draws one of the top
amateur fields in Europe. Field plays two rounds, one
at the Old Course and one additional (sometimes
the Jubilee, sometimes the New), then the field
is
cut to the low 40 and ties. The final two rounds
are played on the Old Course.
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