Mission Hills Asia-Pacific open amateur championship

GARY BOYD WINS BIG
AMATEUR TOURNEY
IN CHINA, THANKS
TO £30 PUTTER

Banbury 20-year-old Gary Boyd scored the biggest international golf win of his amateur golf career in China today – and thanked his lucky stars for buying a £30 bargain putter after the 72-hole Mission Hills Asia-Pacific open amateur championship had begun at Shenzhen.
“It’s the best purchase I’ve made for a long time. The same putter would have cost me at least £100 back home. I didn’t even get it at the pro’s shop at the Mission Hills club. It was just a spur of the moment think during a shopping trip in town after the first round,” said Gary who has a handicap of +4 and is now a member of the England elite amateur squad.
Boyd, pictured right with the trophy, started the final day in joint fourth place, five shots behind the leader, Anthony Fernando from the Philippines. But Fernando crashed to a triple bogey 7 at the fourth and also bogeyed the last two holes in slumping to 77 for a finial total of 289.
TIE ON LEVEL PAR
That gave Boyd and Japan’s Ryuarto Nagano the chance to slip past and tie on level par 288, Boyd with a closing 71 and Nagano with a 74,
Gary birdied the sixth and seventh and then grabbed a vital eagle 3 at the 11th. Bogeys at the fifth, 15th and 18th pulled him back to a one-under-par final round.
Boyd holed a 6ft birdie putt at the first hole of a sudden-death play-off against Nagano.
Reinstated amateur Craig Evans, a former Welsh amateur champion, finished 10th on 299, which included two disappointing closing rounds of 77.
Veteran Walker Cup player Gary Wolstenholme, who usually revels in these international competitions, was not quite on song this week. He finished 33rd in a field of 65 with a total of 312. He closed with a 77 and the best score he had of the four was a 76 in the third round.
This inaugural tournament, the first in China to count for R&A World Men’s Amateur rankings points, will be stated at Mission Hills for the next nine years.
The next men’s pro World Cup tournament will also be played over the 7,000yd+ course.
LEADING TOTALS
Par 72
288 G Boyd (Eng) 72 76 69 71, R Nagano (Jap) 74 71 69 74 (Boyd won play-off at first hole).
289 T H Choo (Singapore) 70 73 71 75, A Fernando (Phi) 71 70 71 77.
294 J Chakola (Ind) 71 77 73 73, R Kulacz (Aus) 73 72 73 76.
Other scores:
299 C Evans (Wal) 75 70 77 77 (10th).
312 G Wolstenholme (Eng) 81 78 76 77 (33rd).
No Return: Z Gould (Wal) 88 NR.