SPOTLIGHT ON PRESTWICK AND DUNDONALD LINKS

EWEN FERGUSON BIDS FOR REPEAT 

BRITISH BOYS' TITLE VICTORY

NEWS RELEASE FROM THE R and A

Scotland’s Ewen Ferguson will aim to cap a remarkable season which has seen him win two Scottish national titles by successfully defending the Boys' Amateur Championship this week.

A 252-player field representing 23 countries will come together at Prestwick and Dundonald Links from tomorrow (Tuesday) to Sunday, August 17 in pursuit of the prestigious trophy that Ferguson won in 2013. 

The 18-year-old from Bearsden in Glasgow, pictured 12 months ago with the trophy, defeated German international Michael Hirmer 10 and 9 in the 36-hole final last year and both will be in the field. 

Ferguson is the first player to hold the Boys Amateur, Scottish Boys Match Play and Scottish Boys Stroke Play titles at the same time, having won the latter event two weeks ago at Cruden Bay.   

He will be aiming to round off his summer by retaining the Boys Amateur trophy he won at Royal Liverpool last year.  

The Scot will face a strong challenge from a number of the world’s top boy golfers aged 18 and under, with more than half of the field travelling to the Ayrshire venues from throughout Europe, America, Africa and Australasia.

Joining Ferguson as one of the home hopes is Scottish Boys Stroke Play runner-up Ben Kinsley and George Burns, the 2014 Stephen Gallacher Foundation Trophy winner. 

Also in the field from Scotland is Newmachar's Adam Fisher who was the only player to win all six of his matches on his debut at the Boys' Home Internationals last week at Western Gailes.  

Recent Irish Boys Amateur winner Bradley Moore of England will be looking to make a run at the title after being defeated by Ferguson in the semi-finals last year. 

He will join compatriots Haydn McCullen, the English Boys Under-18 Open Amateur champion, and the Fairhaven Trophy winner Marco Penge as three of the top English players to watch. 

All three were members of the victorious English team at the Boys' Home Internationals and will be joined in the field by team-mates Harry Hall, Jamie Li, Jack Singh Brar, Jonathan Thomson and Ashton Turner.

Nicklas Mattner of Germany, the 2014 German boys' open champion, will join Hirmer as part of the continental European contingent alongside Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan, the 2012 and 2013 Suzann Junior Challenge winner, and Italy’s Guido Migliozzi who is ranked inside the top 100 in the World Amateur Golf Ranking™.

Johnnie Cole-Hamilton, Executive Director – Championships at The R and A, said,“The Boys Amateur Championship will bring together many of the world’s top young players and we encourage people to come along and enjoy the outstanding golf that will be on display in the West of Scotland.”

He continued, “We have two excellent venues in Prestwick and Dundonald Links, with Prestwick being one of the most historic courses in Britain as well as the first host of The Open Championship while Dundonald is one of Scotland’s most highly regarded links courses. 

"It promises to be an exciting week of golf and we are looking forward to presenting the trophy to the 2014 champion.”

Many of the world’s top players have contested the Boys Amateur including past winners Sergio Garcia, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sir Michael Bonallack. Other former competitors include Major Championship winners Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer and Rory McIlroy.

The stroke play qualifying stage of The Boys Amateur Championship will be played on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 August at both Prestwick and Dundonald Links. Thereafter the field is cut to 64 and ties and the match=play stage will take place over four days at Prestwick with the 36-hole final played on Sunday August 17.

Admission and parking is free for spectators at both venues. Full information, scoring and daily updates from the event will be available at championships.randa.org

First played in 1921 at Royal Ascot, the Boys Amateur will be played for the 88^th time in 2014. Originally introduced as a competition for the under-16 age group, the age limit was changed to under-18 in 1923. Today’s age limit is under-18 on January 1^st of the year of the Championship.