NEIL IS SCOTTISH AMATEUR GOLFER OF YEAR, ORDER OF MERIT WINNER
BRADLEY NEIL: More honours in a fabulous season for the Blairgowrie player.
Picture by Cal Carson Golf Agency
NEWS RELEASE FROM SGU
By ED HODGE
British amateur
champion Bradley Neil has further highlighted his impressive season
after being named Scottish Amateur Golfer of the Year and the Scottish
Golf Union Men’s Order of
Merit winner.
Ahead
of representing Scotland in this week’s World Amateur Team Championship
in Japan, Neil is the first player since Tulliallan’s Callum Macaulay
in 2007 to do the ‘double’.
Thanks
to finishing as the leading Scot on the World Amateur Golf Ranking
(WAGR) at last Friday’s cut-off point – helped by becoming the first
Scot in 10 years to win the British amateur championship at Royal Portrush in June – Neil has secured the Amateur
Golfer of the Year accolade.
Neil
had no shortage of rivals to fend off for the title with six Scots
populating the top 100 on the WAGR during strong seasons in 2014.
The 18-year-old from Blairgowrie is 6th on the WAGR, edging out Craigielaw’s Grant Forrest (18th
WAGR), who beat Neil in a play-off to win the St Andrews Links Trophy in June.
Cawder’s
Jamie Savage, who ended Scotland’s five-year drought in premier
GB and I 72-hole stroke play events by winning in Ireland in May, came
third in the rankings, with Fairstone
Scottish Amateur champion Chris Robb (Meldrum House) fourth. Kilmarnock
Barassie’s Jack McDonald, the 2013 Order of Merit champion, and James
Ross of Royal Burgess, last year’s Scottish Amateur Golfer of the Year,
were fifth and sixth respectively.
Perthshire
player Neil joins a Scottish Amateur Golfer of the Year roll on honour
that features the likes of Andrew Coltart, Dean Robertson, Steven
O’Hara, Richie Ramsay, James
Byrne, Michael Stewart and Macaulay.
Neil
also came out on top in the SGU Men’s Order of Merit, helped hugely by
his Royal Portrush success which earned him 250 points. Having posted
seven top-10 finishes already
in 2014, Neil defeated South African Zander Lombard 2 and 1 in the
British amateur championship final. The former Scottish Boys champion also won the key
play-off for Scotland’s European Nations Cup success in March, helped
Great Britain and Ireland win the St Andrews Trophy and will
represent Europe in the Junior Ryder Cup side over his home course
later this month.
Robb
finished runner-up in the merit rankings, with Matthew Clark
(Kilmacolm), McDonald’s Adam Dunton and Connor Syme of Drumoig third,
fourth and fifth respectively. European
Tour winner Scott Jamieson is among the former winners of the Merit
title.
“It’s
a great achievement for me,” said Neil of the double success. “I would
have been delighted to win one of them, but winning both tops off my
season really well, even though
we have more to play for in Japan this week ahead of the Junior Ryder
Cup.
“The
Amateur win obviously helped me on the merit table and the WAGR.
Building up to The Amateur I had lot of good stroke play performances,
like in the Lytham Trophy and at
the St Andrews Links.
“I was just behind Grant in the rankings and when I won it took me ahead of him, so it was great to stay there.
“We’ve
had six Scots in the top 100 (of the WAGR) this year, which is
certainly different to last year. We’ve shown as a group that we’ve made
a step up and made big improvements
at British and European level. We’ve driven each other on this season.”
Neil,
Forrest and Robb are now fully focused on this week’s World Amateur
Team Championship in Japan, bidding to emulate the historic Eisenhower
Trophy success of their countrymen
in 2008.
Staged
in the city of Karuizawa in Nagano Prefecture from today (Wednesday)
until Saturday, the biennial 72-hole stroke-play
event is one of the most prestigious
in amateur golf.
Six
years ago in Australia, Scotland were on top of the world after
brilliantly claiming a first-ever world title victory thanks to the
endeavours of Wallace Booth, Gavin Dear
and Macaulay as George Crawford captained his side to an emphatic
nine-stroke victory over a USA field featuring Rickie Fowler and Billy
Horschel.
“Hopefully
we can play well this week and contend at the Eisenhower,” added Neil.
“We know we can put in a good performance and all three of us,
individually, are good players.
It’s a question of performing as a team this week.”
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