Thursday, June 18, 2009

British amateur championship at Formby

Hillson, Byrne, White left to

carry Scottish standard

FROM THE HERALD NEWSPAPER WEBSITE
http://www.theherald.co.uk/national_sport/
DOUGLAS LOWE, Golf Correspondent
Mark Hillson came through a messy day of driving rain on the Lancashire links yesterday to be one of three unlikely Scots to survive into the last 32 of the Amateur Championship, a stage neither he nor James White and James Byrne (pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency) have reached before.
Hillson has experience of dirty work. After graduating in maths from St Andrews University, he travelled the world working wherever he could, and that included a fortnight digging latrines in Australia.
"I had a variety of jobs like bar work, but that was the worst," he said with a laugh after dispatching the Northern Irishman, Luke Lennox by 2&1.
Hillson, a former Lothians champion, was three up after five, but then lost three in a row and the match was still level after 13 holes. With gritty determination, the Scot dug himself out of a hole by birdieing the par-4 13th and when his opponent took three putts from the edge of the green at the next, two halves were enough to claim a match today against Germany's Stephan Jaeger.
The 26-year-old plus-2 handicapper from the Craigielaw stable that produced the Saltman brothers is a late developer, and, having settled down after his globetrotting, he is looking for a first Scottish cap at this year's home internationals at Hillside, near to this week's venue, and ultimately to become a European Tour player.
With all six of Scotland's team announced this week for the European Championships no longer involved - Gavin Dear being the last to exit yesterday - this week is an excellent chance to establish his credentials and he showed versatility yesterday.
"After the run and fire of the qualifying rounds, the course was receptive and I was able to attack it," he said.
Another player with a chance to stake his claim is 21-year-old Fifer White, a former Scottish boys champion, who has found himself out of the Scottish Golf Union's squad system for the first time in seven years.
A business student at Stirling University, White, from the Lundin club, is also targeting the home internationals and he progressed with a 4&3 win over Englishman Jake Amos. "I had to change my game- plan and couldn't rely just on my irons like I did yesterday in fast conditions," he said. "Today, I used my driver at just about every par-4."
White will now meet the American Steve Ziegler, of Stanford University, conqueror of Dear, whose opponent twice holed 20-foot putts to stay one down. "If I had gone two up I felt as if I would be away, but each time he holed those putts he followed up with a birdie," said Dear, who lost a ball at the 15th to go one down and was unable to match the American's birdie 4 at the 17th to lose 2&1.
Byrne, from Banchory, a 20-year-old former Scottish boys stroke-play champion and now a second-year economics student at the University of Arizona State, fought back from two down after four, and with a deliberate policy of playing for pars wore down England's Sam Stuart to win 3&1.
It was farewell to holder Reinier Saxton, from Holland, who lost a five-hole lead after 10 holes over Spaniard Ignacio Elvira and, in sudden death, drove into trees at the first to complete the collapse.
+Published by permission of the Scottish Herald Newspaper Sports Editor and Douglas Lowe.

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