Streetly, Sutton Coldfield, England (July 29,
2010) -- Tommy Fleetwood is the English
champion but
only after a nervy performance in a see-saw
36-hole final that went the distance at Little
Aston.
The Lancastrian edged out Surrey’s Warren
Harmston by one hole after he had been 2
down with seven to play and looking like
another national title would pass him by.
But a run of three birdies in four holes from the
12th turned the final on its head after
Harmston had been in the driving seat for
much of the morning and a great deal of the
afternoon round.
So it was a mightily relieved Fleetwood who
added his name to an illustrious list of
champions of this old event, celebrating its
80th playing.
“I was due a win in a national event,” said
Fleetwood. “I was shocked to be 2 down after
11 holes this afternoon and it didn’t look
promising.
“I hit good putts on the tenth and 11th but I
wasn’t getting the run of the ball. But from
then on my game turned round completely.
“All I was thinking all the way round I was
thinking I didn’t want to end my amateur
career on a low. But I hit some good birdies
and it all came right in the end.
“When I went 1 up on the first this afternoon
it was the first time I’d been up in a final since
the Amateur Championship which must be well
over 100 holes.”
Harmston, who looked for much of the final as
if he would pull off a superb victory, was
naturally disappointed.
“It’s never nice to lose but credit Tommy. He
made the birdies at the right time which swung
the match in his favour,” he said.
“I didn’t expect to reach the final but having
done so it’s a bit frustrating after all the hard
work over the week. But I’ll take a lot of good
things away from this week.”
Harmston, who led four times during the
morning round, will probably look back on the
18th green where he had a birdie putt to take
a one hole lead into lunch. But the ball rolled
past.
If he had holed it would have given him a
psychological boost. Yet he came out in the
afternoon playing the same productive golf and
an eagle-three at the third put him back on
level terms after Fleetwood had taken the lead
for the first time at the first.
Fleetwood bogeys at the eighth and ninth
enabled Harmston to reach the turn 2up after
going out in 34 and he enjoyed that lead two
holes later.
But the match began to swing at the 12th
when Fleetwood holed from six feet for birdie
and he added another with a two at the short
13th to get back to all square.
At the par four 14th, Harmston tangled with
the trees, took three to reach the green and
was looking at a five when Fleetwood left his
25-footer stone dead to go 1up.
A further birdie at the long 15th gave
Fleetwood a two hole cushion and when he
fired his approach to six feet at 16 it looked all
over.
But the gritty Harmston, who had again been
near the trees, holed from 20 feet for birdie
while Fleetwood missed to cut the deficit to
one.
They halved the 17th in fours then at 18
Harmston was again in the back fringe and
needing to hole to stay alive, chipped past and
the battle was over.
Having lost three national finals, the Amateur
Championship, Spanish and New South Wales,
Fleetwood had laid his personal bogey and
joined the likes of Sir Michael Bonallack, Nick
Faldo, Mark James and Paul Casey on the
English Amateur Roll of Honour.
The English Amateur was played in its inaugural year of 1925 at Hoylake when local golfer T Froes Ellison captured the title. He successfully defended the following year at Walton Heath, a feat achieved by only six others: Frank Pennink, Alan Thirlwe...
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