English Golf Union Press Release

SPANISH VICTORY PUTS DANIEL

WILLETT TO No. 1 IN

WORLD AMATEUR RANKINGS

Walker Cup player and English champion Daniel Willett has moved into the top spot in the R&A World Amateur Golf Ranking following his victory in the Spanish amateur championship last weekend, ending US Walker Cup player Rickie Fowler's 24-week run as the World No 1.

Willett, the Yorkshire-based 20 year old, claimed the Spanish title with a 5 and 3 victory over Spain’s Jordi Garcia Pinto in the 36-hole final at Pals on Sunday.

The win means he now holds four significant titles, the Yorkshire championship and the South of England stroke-play championship as well as the English and Spanish titles.

“I’m happy to be No.1. It proves all the hard work is paying off,” he says. “I’d been second for so long but that was only because I didn’t get the chance to play an event. When I got that chance I won in my first outing of the year.

“The week in Spain was a bit strange. I wasn’t hitting the ball that well early on. I was struggling off the tee, firing it into the trees, but I managed to recover well and not to drop many shots. When I did hit the fairways I made a lot of birdies. The course was good for scoring and I had a good few birdies throughout the week.”

Willett is also heading the PING/EGU Order of Merit at this early stage of the year so is on course for a ‘double’. “I’m just going to try to play well. If I do that the results will come and so will the points on the merit tables,” he adds.

“It will be difficult to stay on top of the World list because the Americans are playing more than we are at this time. We don’t get to play many competitive events here until May so I’ll just keep going to the gym, work on a few new things and try to keep everything in good shape.”

Willett, from Rotherham, who spent 18 weeks as the WAGR No. 2, won the South of England and English titles in successive weeks last summer before making his Walker Cup debut, where he held the then World No. 1 Colt Knost to a halved match in the final singles, and then cut short his scholarship at Jacksonville State University, Alabama and returned home to play full-time amateur golf.

He heads the WAGR on 1276.74 points, ahead of Fowler with 1107.44. Seven English players appear in the WAGR top 50, making England the second most successful country after the USA and the top European country before Sweden with four top 50 players.

Willett’s victory in Spain means that the Iberian title resides in England for a third successive year after similar triumphs by Sam Hutsby and fellow Yorkshireman John Parry.

Footnote from Colin Farquharson:

The leading Scot in the R&A WAGR is Callum Macaulay (Tulliallan). He dropped from 34th to 36th in this week's update. Wallace Booth (Comrie) and James Byrne (Banchory) remained as they were, Booth in 46th position, Byrne in 81st.

The only other Scot meantime ranked in the world's top 100 male amateurs is Keir McNicoll from Carnoustie. He went down from 88th to 90th this week.