Don't cry for Kellett - he was beaten by a
blizzard of birdies in Argentina final
Motherwell's Ross Kellett had a tiger by the tail in the 36-hole final of the 114th Argentia men's open amateur championship - and was eventually beaten 7 and 5 by Romain Wattel, the teenage French men's amateur champion, at the Buenos Aires Golf Club.
Kellett, pictured by Cal Carson Golf Agency, the fourth seed, was battered by birdies from start to finish by the talented young Frenchman who finished with a bag of 12 birdies - twice as many as Kellett - for the 31 holes played.
Wattel was the star of the Continent of Europe's Jacques Leglise Trophy match team earlier in the year.
Kellett, who will be 22 in January, had only one birdie to his opponent's seven over the morning 18 holes at the end of which Wattel was six up.
But over the second round, Kellett had five birdies of his own between the 20th and the 26th. That helped him reduce the deficit to five holes with 10 to play.
Earlier Wattel was four holes up after 11, having birdied the first, third, eight and 11th.
Kellett, who had one bogey on the outward journey - at the ninth, turning in one-over 37 to his opponents' three-under 33, had to birdie the long 10th to score his first and only success so far in the final.
Wattel made it three birdies in a row from the 11th to the 13th to increase his lead to six holes.
The short 14th was halved in bogey 4s.
Wattel produced his seventh and last birdie of the morning round to win the long 15th and increase his lead to seven holes.
Kellett was able to win back the 16th with a par when his opponent had his second bogey of the morning.
The last two holes before lunch were halved, leaving Kellett six down with 18 holes to play.
Wattel had gone round in five-under-par 67 with seven birdies and two bogeys.
Kellett had gone round in one-over 73 with one birdie and two bogeys.
Kellett, who had one bogey on the outward journey - at the ninth, turning in one-over 37 to his opponents' three-under 33, had to birdie the long 10th to score his first and only success so far in the final.
Wattel made it three birdies in a row from the 11th to the 13th to increase his lead to six holes.
The short 14th was halved in bogey 4s.
Wattel produced his seventh and last birdie of the morning round to win the long 15th and increase his lead to seven holes.
Kellett was able to win back the 16th with a par when his opponent had his second bogey of the morning.
The last two holes before lunch were halved, leaving Kellett six down with 18 holes to play.
Wattel had gone round in five-under-par 67 with seven birdies and two bogeys.
Kellett had gone round in one-over 73 with one birdie and two bogeys.
Wattel carried on after lunch where he had left off with a hat-trick of birdies from the 19th to 21st but the Scot was able to match them at the 20th and 21st. He had still slipped seven down.
Then Kellett birdied the 23rd and 24th to be "only" five down before he double bogeyed the 25th to go back to six in arreas. The Scot birdied the short 26th in his best spell of the match to be five down, reaching the turn second time round in three-under-par 33 to Wattel's 34.
But that was the end of Kellett's sub-par run while the Frenchman turned his tap on again to birdie the short 29th, finishing off the match with his 12th birdie at the 31st to win the Kenneth R Gordon Davis Cup.
Wattel, ranked No 104 in the world, was nine under par for the 31 holes. Kellett, ranked No 65 in the R&A WAGR, was a creditable two under par for the match - figures that would have been good enough to beat many other opponents.
Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck & East Tennessee State University) caddied for Ross over the first 18 holes. Hazlehead's David Law, the Scottish men's and boys' champion, took over the bag-carrying duties for the second round.
James Byrne (Banchory & Arizona State University), the fourth player sent by the Scottish Golf Union to play in the championship - money well spent? -and SGU national coach Ian Rae watched from close quarters.
During the summer Kellett finished runner-up in the European individual men's amateur championship and then was a member of the winning Scotland squad in the European men's amateur team championship at Conwy, North Wales.
He will be disappointed that he was not able to add the Argentina amateur championship to his CV but to qualify as No 4 seed and go all the way to the final before losing to a magnificent performance from Wattel is still another good advertisement for Scottish amateur golf.
Final (36 holes) - Wattel bt Kellett 7 and 5.
Labels: Amateur Men
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Sunday, November 22, 2009
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