Fleetwood Claims English Amateur Title

July 31, 2010 | by

Tommy Fleetwood <br>2010 English Amateur Champion <br>picture © Tom Ward

Fleetwood is the English Amateur Champion

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.

Results: English Amateur

Place	Player	Location	Pts
Win	Tommy Fleetwood	, England	700
Runner-up	Warren Harmston	, England	500
Semifinals	Ross Dee	, England	400
Semifinals	Tom Lewis	, England	400
Quarterfinals	James Burnett	, England	300

View full results for English Amateur

About the English Amateur

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...