WALKER CUP STARS SAFELY THROUGH TO LAST 32 AT MUIRFIELD

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The three stars of Great Britain and Ireland’s 2009 Walker Cup team contesting the Amateur Championship this week, Tommy Fleetwood, Chris Paisley and Stiggy Hodgson, picture by courtesy of Tom Ward Photography, have safely made it through to the last 32. They join 29 other players representing 15 nations, who are one step closer to the Open Championship exemption and the Masters Tournament invitation on offer to the winner.
Fleetwood, 19, finished stroke play qualifying two shots clear of the field after he followed an opening-day 70 at Muirfield, with a six-under-par 65 at North Berwick. Despite going two holes down after five today at Muirfield, the World Amateur Golf Ranking number nine rallied to turn the match around and win 2 and 1.
“The first few holes were a bit of a struggle,” said the 2008 Amateur Championship runner-up. “Towards the end though, when I really needed it, I played well.
“I’m still feeling confident. As long as I play well, I think I’ve got a good chance of going all the way. You never know who you’re going up against, but I fancy my chances here.”
Displaying similar levels of confidence is Stiggy Hodgson, who comfortably defeated Royal Liverpool’s Tom Boys 4 and 3.
“You can’t get over-confident, but I feel confident enough. I’m going to be tough to beat,” said Sunningdale’s Hodgson, who took two points from four against the USA last September at Merion Golf Club.
“I’m striking it great and putting well, which is nice. I can’t get too excited yet, though. It’s only my first round, and I didn’t play fantastic today, but it’s job done.”
Completing the trio of Walker Cup players is Stocksfield’s Chris Paisley. The 24-year-old progressed with a 3 and 2 victory over Italy’s Mattia Miloro.
“The Walker Cup gave me lots of confidence,” explained Paisley, who graduated from the University of Tennessee last year. “I had two halves in the singles there, and both were really good games. It gave me confidence that I can play on a big stage like that.
“It was good today, just a steady performance. I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing, and if it’s good enough, it’s good enough.”
International players progressing included Jin Jeong of Korea and Australia’s Kieran Pratt, both of whom won their matches by two holes. And, like Fleetwood, Hodgson and Paisley, they are brimming with confidence going into the rest of the week.
“I’m hitting it well and I’ve been putting pretty well this week, so I’m quite confident of hopefully winning this one,” said Jeong, the world number 10.
Pratt, who won the 2010 Lake Macquarie Amateur by 11 strokes, said: “Hopefully I can lift it in the next few matches and put more pressure on my opponent. But I got enough out of today to move on and be confident over the next few days.”
Others to make it into day four include Welshman Rhys Enoch, Scotland's James Byrne, Bolivia’s Sebastian MacLean, Yuki Usami of Japan and Sweden’s Henrik Norlander.
Tomorrow will see 32 become eight, as the remaining competitors play two rounds of match play.
The 36-hole final will be played on Saturday. The winner will receive exemption into the 150th Anniversary Open Championship and a Masters Tournament invitation

                         JORDAN FINDLAY     MICHAEL STEWART       JAMES BYRNE

Byrne, Stewart and Findlay keep home flag flying in last 32

FROM THE SCOTSMAN.COM WEBSITE
By Martin Dempster
On a day that saw the Americans suffer a wipe-out at the Amateur Championship, how ironic that the three Scots left standing at the last-32 stage at Muirfield are players who have spent productive time at colleges in the United States.
From the group of ten that qualified for the match-play stage, James Byrne, Michael Stewart and Jordan Findlay are all that's remaining of the home contingent, though they all have sound enough credentials to go all the way and become the first Scot to lift this title since Stuart Wilson at St Andrews in 2004.
Byrne, the top Scot in the world rankings, swept into the third round with an impressive bogey-free performance in beating Tiago Rodrigues, a young Portuguese player with a tidy short game, by 5 and 4 on another glorious day in East Lothian.
"I said to my caddie, Richard Lamb, that my strategy was to have no bogeys and that was the key," said the 21-year-old from Banchory, who moved up a gear after an eagle-3 at the long fifth, where he holed from 30 feet, and kept his momentum going, thanks to a great recovery from thick rough at the tenth.
Byrne, who lost in the last 16 at Formby 12 months ago before producing a blistering run of form that saw him lift the Tennant Cup and East of Scotland Open – he also came within a whisker of qualifying for The Open – has spent the past three years at Arizona State University and points to the recent NCAA Championship, played over the Honors Course in Chattanooga, as a good indication of the standard of golf he now enjoys on a regular basis.
"The course was 7,400 yards, the rough was think and it was wet – a lot tougher than this week," added Byrne, who won a long-driving contest with a blow of 325 yards early on in his spell in Phoenix and reckons he's added about 20 yards in distance off the tee since he left Scotland.
"I shot one-over-par for three rounds and finished 41st – over here I'd have been in the top ten."
Byrne, who has been coached by Inchmarlo's Andrew Locke since he was ten but is also benefiting from some mentoring from Dean Robertson, is aiming to turn professional after next year's Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen and admits he is thinking seriously about taking a leaf out of Martin Laird's book by staying on in America.
"That's still to be decided but I'm leaning towards the Martin Laird way through the Nationwide Tour, which seems much stronger than the Challenge Tour in Europe," he said.
Stewart, the 2008 Scottish boys' match-play champion from Troon Welbeck, was at East Tennessee State University for two years but isn't going back after the summer, having decided that he's gained enough from the experience and now needs to be back in Scotland to give himself the best possible chance of making that Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team.
"I loved it over there but felt that I had secured sufficient experience of golf and life," said the 20-year-old. "My big goal now before I turn professional is to make the Walker Cup team – I want to play in an event of that stature and experience having a home crowd behind me."
After plotting his way around the magnificent Open Championship venue the previous day, Stewart took off the handcuffs yesterday and bagged five birdies in sweeping aside Germany's Philipp Westermann by 5 and 4. "I was able to play my usual attacking golf and played so much better," he said.
Findlay, a 22-year-old former British boys' champion from Fraserburgh, also had a spell at East Tennessee State, sharing two of his years there with Rhys Enoch, the player he meets in the third round, and the other two with Rhys Davies, who is making a strong challenge for a Ryder Cup debut on Welsh soil later in the year.
After holing his 9-iron second shot from 145yd in winning an all-Scottish clash against Lundin's James White, Findlay, originally fifth reserve for the event, revealed how close he'd come to suffering a serious injury in a car crash as he headed down from the North-east to Largs to see Bob Torrance, his coach of nearly four years.
"I used to travel up and down in one day, leaving Fraserburgh at 4.30am," he said, "That was just stupid and one day I crashed my car into a pole in Dundee. The car was written off and I was very lucky to escape with a couple of scratches.
"Since then, I go down to Largs for a week, staying in a bed and breakfast close to Bob's house."
Enoch, a Great Britain and Ireland squad member, beat Peterhead's Philip McLean, who rallied with back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th but bowed out after being unable to make another one at the 17th, where he found the same spot at the 17th where Gary Evans famously lost a ball in the 2002 Open.
The other MacLean in the field is still standing, though. Sebastian, the 20-year-old from Bolivia who is an eighth generation descendent of a Scot, recovered from "an impossible" position in a greenside bunker at the penultimate hole as he beat Kiwi Ben Campbell.

FIRST ROUND RESULTS

Tiago Rodrigues (Portugal) bt Cian Curley (Newlands, Ireland) 3 and 2.
Leonardo Motta (Italy) bt Patricio Salem (Peru) 4 and 3.
Scott Crichton (Aberdour) bt Amir Habibi (Rochester and Cobham Park) 4 and 3.
Mattia Miloro (Italy) bt Mark Hillson (Craigielaw) 4 and 3.
Toby Burden (Hayling) bt Andy Sullivan (Nuneaton) 4 and 3.
Morten Orum Madsen (Denmark) bt Adam Carson (Long Ashton) 4 and 3.
Elias Bertheussen (Norway) bt Chris Harkins (Ayr Belleisle) 3 and 2.
Darren Wright (Rowlands Castle) bt Greg Paterson (St Andrews New) 1 hole.
Jose Maria Joia (Portugal) bt Andrew Hogan (Newlands, Ireland) 4 and 3.

SECOND ROUND
Tommy Fleetwood (Formby Hall) bt Andrew Shakespear (Five Lakes) 2 and 1.
Rasmus Lykke-Kjeldsen (Denmark) bt Xavier Feyaerts (Belgium) 1 hole.
Peter Baunsoe (Denmark) bt Laurie Canter (Saltford) 1 hole.
Matthew Nixon (Ashton-under-Lyne) bt Clemend Berardo (France) 4 and 2.
Sebastian MacLean (Bolivia) bt Ben Campbell (NZ) 2 and 1.
Henrik Norlander (Sweden) bt Clement Sordet (France) 5 and 3.
Rhys Enoch (Truro) bt Philip McLean (Peterhead) 2 and 1.
Jordan Findlay (Fraserburgh) bt James White (Lundin) 2 and 1.
Tom Lewis (Welwyn Garden City) bt Alex Ching (US) 3 and 2.
Jonathan Hurst (Shaw Hill) bt Mervin Rocchi (France) 4 and 3.
Jin Jeong (South Korea) bt Toni Hakula (Finland) 2 holes.
Romain Wattel (France) bt Trent Whitekiller (US) 1 hole.
Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck) bt Philipp Westermann (Germany) 4 and 3.
Paul Cutler (Portstewart) bt Jonathan Bell (Royal Blackheat) 4 and 3.
Kieran Pratt (Australia) bt Emilio Cuartero (Spain)  2 holes.
Yuki Usami (Japan) bt Leo Lespinasse (France) 5 and 4.
James Fox (Portmarnock) bt Paul Shields (Kirkhill) 2 and 1.
Alan Dunbar (Rathmore) bt Michael Buttacavoli (US) 2 and 1.
Edouard Espana (France) bt Matthew Southgate (Thorpe Hall) at 19th.
Stiggy Hodgson (Sunningdale) bt Tom Boys (Royal Liverpool) 4 and 3.
Alex Christie (Tyrrells Wood) bt Olivier Rozner (France) 1 hole.
Alexis Szappanos (Germany) bt Mu Hu (China) 1 hole.
Stephan Jaeger (Germany) bt Oliver Farr (Ludlow) 5 and 4.
James Byrne (Banchory) bt Tiago Rodrigues (Portugal) 5 and 4.
Are Friestad (Norway) bt Leonard Motta (Italy) 4 and 2.
Billy Hemstock (Teignmouth) bt Scott Crichton (Aberdour) 3 and 2.
Chris Paisley (Stocksfield) bt Mattia Miloro (Italy) 3 and 2.
Toby Burden (Hayling0 bt Charlie Cossins (Bath) 1 hole.
Morten Orum Madsen (Denmark) bt Nino Bertasio (Italy) 2 and 1.
Andrea Pavan (Italy) bt Elias Bertheussen (Norway) 1 hole.
Darren Wright (Rowlands Castle) bt Warren Harmston (Wentworth) 4 and 3.
Jose Maria Joia (Portugal) bt Ian Winstanley (Formby) 1 hole.