Now young Matteo has to beat the jinx

on leading qualifiers in Amateur

FROM THE GOLFWEEK.COM WEBSITE
By ALISTAIR TAIT
Senior Writer
Italy’s Matteo Manassero made British Amateur Championship history today when he became the youngest known medalist (leading qualifier for the match-play stages) since the tournament began in 1885.
The 16-year-old added a two-under-par 70 at Formby to his opening 65 at West Lancashire for a nine-under-par total of 135. That gave him a four-shot lead over veteran Welshman Nigel Edwards and Sam Hutsby of England.
Manassero could not match the quality of his eagle, seven-birdie barrage of his first-round 65, but he didn’t have to do much to smash a record that David Duval set in 1991 at Ganton.
Duval was 19 when he led the qualifying at Ganton. Three other 19-year-olds have earned medalist honours since then. Scot Stephen Gallacher recorded that feat in 1994, Nick Dougherty managed it in 2001 and Hutsby was one year shy of his 20th birthday when he was medalist at Turnberry last year.
Manassero needs an asterisk beside his name, since the R&A only began keeping such records in 1984. However, given that today’s competitors are much younger than their forebears, it seems almost certain that Manassero is the youngest ever.
The precocious native of Verona, Italy looks up to Seve Ballesteros and countryman Costantino Rocca. Both men would have been happy with the scores Manassero has posted over the last two days.
The 16-year-old complained about his work on the greens at Formby Golf Club as the reason he didn’t come close to matching his opening round. “I didn’t putt very well,” he said.
He now has to try to get over the amateur jinx if he hopes to better John Beharrell’s record of youngest winner of the championship. Beharrell was 18 years old when he won the 1956 tournament at Royal Troon.
The amateur jinx refers to medalists only. Seven of the last 10 have lost in the first round. Edwards made his seventh cut in the British Amateur in the last eight years. His best finish in the game’s premier amateur event is a quarter-final appearance in the 2005 championship at Royal Birkdale. He lost to Oliver Fisher on that occasion.
The 40-year-old Welshman reached the match play stages with a conservative game plan. He plotted his way to a level-par 72 with 16 pars, one birdie and a bogey.“It was a matter of getting the job done today,” Edwards said.
“I just played nice and steady and didn’t want to do anything wrong.”
Hutsby fashioned a 71 at West Lancashire to go with his opening 68. The 20-year-old is one of the most highly-rated amateurs in the British Isles, so it is no surprise he will enter the match play stages as one of the favourites.
“I felt there was a score out there today, so I didn’t want to play too protectively,” Hutsby said. “I didn’t play as well as yesterday. I was a bit sloppy. My game is in reasonable shape. Match play is fantastic because it’s change of game plan. I like to be aggressive. If in doubt go flat out.”
Defending champion Reinier Saxton added a second successive 70 to qualify on 4-under-par 140.
Scottish stroke-play champion Tommy Fleetwood, beaten finalist last year, also safely made it through. He added a 70 at West Lancashire to the 74 he recorded in Round 1. Fleetwood was one of just 10 Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup squad players to make the cut of 3-over-par 147.
Sixteen GB&I squad members failed to advance, including highly-rated players like Matt Haines and Luke Goddard of England, and former Augusta State player Wallace Booth.
NCAA champion and college No. 1 Matt Hill also missed. He posted a 75 at Formby to the 76 he returned at West Lancashire to miss by four shots.
Hill’s chances of making the match play stages didn’t start well in Round 2. He hit his opening tee shot into trees to the right of the first hole and could only chip the ball back to the fairway. He made bogey and just couldn’t make enough birdies over the next 17 holes to catch up.
The 20-year-old Canadian was tasting links golf for the first time.
Four of the 20 U.S. players in the field made it through. Russell Henley, Steve Ziegler, Gregor Main and William Wilcox will try to emulate Drew Weaver’s feat of two years ago and win the game’s oldest amateur championship.
Main might be the man to watch from that bunch. The UCLA freshman Monday qualified for the Buick Open on the US PGA Tour this year and made the cut. The Bruins freshman is ranked 27th on the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings.
===========================================
Seventy-six players qualified with the cut coming at 147 (+3). A preliminary round will take place on Wednesday morning from 7.36am to establish the top 64 players with the first match of the second round commencing at 9.45am.
===========================================
Visit RandA.org for a full list of qualifiers and the draw for the match play stage of the 2009 Amateur Championship.

Scores with relation to par from the second round of the British Amateur Championship, played June 16 at the par-72, 7,020-yard West Lancashire Golf Club and the par-72, 7,095-yard Formby Golf Club in Formby.
Par 144 (2x72)
1. Matteo Manassero 65-70--135
2. Nigel Edwards 67-72--139
2. Sam Hutsby 68-71--139
4. Jack Bartlett 69-71--140
4. Gavin Dear 69-71--140
4. Reinier Saxton 70-70--140
4. Brendan Smith 70-70--140
4. Matt Jager 66-74--140
9. Jesper Kennegard 68-73--141
9. Fredrik Qvicker 72-69--141
9. Stefan Wiedergruen 71-70--141
9. Tommy King 73-68--141
9. Stephan Jaeger 68-73--141
9. Maximilian Kieffer 69-72--141
15. Ben Rickett 72-70--142
15. Simon Ward 70-72--142
15. Peter Baunsoe 72-70--142
15. Jamie Abbott 74-68--142
19. Willem Vork 70-73--143
19. Luke Lennox 73-70--143
19. Pontus Widegren 75-68--143
19. Russell Henley 75-68--143
19. James Byrne 69-74--143
19. Andrea Pavan 72-71--143
19. Greg Paterson 73-70--143
19. Bryden Macpherson 75-68--143
19. Adam Runcie 73-70--143
19. James White 73-70--143
19. Chris Cannon 71-72--143
19. Niall Kearney 72-71--143
19. Daan Huizing 68-75--143
32. Stephan Gross 72-72--144
32. Rhys Enoch 69-75--144
32. David Markle 68-76--144
32. Joon Kim 71-73--144
32. James Robinson 69-75--144
32. Tommy Fleetwood 74-70--144
32. Niclas Johansson 73-71--144
32. Jurrian Van Der Vaart 75-69--144
32. Steven Brown 71-73--144
32. Jake Amos 73-71--144
32. Ignacio Elvira 70-74--144
32. Kalle Samooja 76-68--144
44. Steve Ziegler 72-73--145
44. Charlie Cossins 74-71--145
44. Jonathan Hurst 76-69--145
44. John Carroll 73-72--145
44. Jonathan Gidney 70-75--145
44. Darren Renwick 72-73--145
44. Adam Wainwright 72-73--145
44. Joe Vickery 73-72--145
52. Mark Hillson 75-71--146
52. Gregor Main 76-70--146
52. Pedro Oriol 71-75--146
52. Paul Cutler 70-76--146
52. Eugene Wong 73-73--146
52. Victor Flatau 71-75--146
52. Dale Whitnell 69-77--146
52. Johann Lopez Lazaro 71-75--146
52. Lincoln Tighe 71-75--146
52. Richard Hooper 71-75--146
62. Matthew Nixon 72-75--147
62. Nils Floren 74-73--147
62. Sam Stuart 73-74--147
62. Tim Sluiter 71-76--147
62. Stiggy Hodgson 73-74--147
62. Robin Kind 72-75--147
62. William Wilcox 76-71--147
62. Billy Hemstock 71-76--147
62. Sam Haywood 73-74--147
62. Nunzio Lombardi 76-71--147
62. Daniel Nisbet 74-73--147
62. Adrian Ford 73-74--147
62. Henrik Norlander 73-74--147
62. Ryan Dreyer 77-70--147
62. Alexander Knappe 71-76--147

DID NOT QUALIFY
77. Todd Adcock 80-68--148
77. Sebastian MacLean 76-72--148
77. Olivier Serres 74-74--148
77. Nuno Henriques 72-76--148
77. Jason Timmis 73-75--148
77. Andrew Cooley 72-76--148
77. Michael Kraaij 71-77--148
77. Derik Ferreira 73-75--148
77. Richard Bentham 76-72--148
77. Wouter De Vries 73-75--148
77. Tom Sherreard 75-73--148
77. Adam Wootton 71-77--148
77. Cyril Bouniol 76-72--148
77. Bill Rankin 76-72--148
77. Fraser Fotheringham 74-74--148
77. Morten Madsen 72-76--148
77. Jon White 75-73--148
77. Oliver Farr 74-74--148
77. Allen John 74-74--148
96. Farren Keenan 77-72--149
96. Jason Scrivener 75-74--149
96. David Coupland 74-75--149
96. Nino Bertasio 74-75--149
96. Kris Nicol 76-73--149
96. Kelly Kraft 74-75--149
96. Gary Stal 74-75--149
96. Tristan Bierenbroodspot 74-75--149
96. John Kemp 76-73--149
96. Mervin Rocchi 73-76--149
96. Gordon Yates 75-74--149
96. Jean-Pierre Verselin 81-68--149
96. Paul O'Kane 74-75--149
96. Charles Ford 76-73--149
96. Paul O'Hara 75-74--149
96. Robin Wingardh 72-77--149
96. Darren Wright 72-77--149
113. Ian Kenwright 75-75--150
113. Lindsay Renolds 76-74--150
113. Mads Kristensen 75-75--150
113. Luke Collins 75-75--150
113. Miles Mackman 79-71--150
113. Jack Senior 75-75--150
113. Anders Kristiansen 78-72--150
113. Raphael Marguery 76-74--150
113. Will Roebuck 73-77--150
113. Mark Young 71-79--150
113. Benedikt Staben 76-74--150
113. Thomas Shadbolt 73-77--150
113. Keir McNicoll 73-77--150
113. Steve Uzzell 76-74--150
113. Craig Hinton 76-74--150
113. Scott Borrowman 77-73--150
113. Seamus Power 77-73--150
113. Matt Haines 76-74--150
113. Ben Westgate 75-75--150
113. Sean Einhaus 76-74--150
113. Rhys Black 76-74--150
113. Maxwell Scodro 77-73--150
Selected scores:
135. Steven McEwan 76-75--151
135. Bobby Rushford 77-74--151
152. Wallace Booth 78-74--152
152. Chris Paisley 72-80--152
167. Michael Stewart 78-75--153
167. Gordon Stevenson 77-76--153
167. Neil Henderson 78-75--153
167. Peter Latimer 75-78--153
167. Ross Kellett 73-80--153
192. David Law 74-80--154
205. Luke Goddard 77-78--155
232. Alan Dunbar 74-83--157
232. Philip McLean 74-83--157
232. Lewis Kirton 78-79--157
243. Paul Ferrier 78-80--158
256. Alexander Culverwell 78-82--160
256. Jordan Findlay 78-82--160
DQ. Stephen Clark 81-DQ
WD. Paul Betty 83-WD