Hampshire Golf Limited
Scott wins NSW Amateur
Tuesday 17th January 2017
Corhampton's Scott Gregory in Australia.
SCOTT WINS NSW AMATEUR
Corhampton's Scott Gregory beat Marco Penge to win the NSW Amateur Championship today (Friday).
SCOTT IN NSW FINAL ON FRIDAY
Having shaken off the winter rust in his first three events of 2017 in the Australian sunshine - he reached the last 16 in the Australian Amateur Championship at Melbourne's Yarra Yarra Golf Club, two weeks ago - Gregory's game kicked into overdrive in the semis.
Gregory has grown in confidence over the first four days of the tournament having finished tied third in the 36-hole qualifying on Monday and Tuesday.
“I played good, solid all day, on Wedneasdy," said Scott. "Both matches were trading birdies, not bogies, so that’s the way you like to play.
“The first week at the Australian Master of the Amateurs at Royal Melbourne, was a bit rusty. I hadn’t been on the golf course for over a month,” he smiled.
“At the Aussie Amateur, I qualified in sixth place and made the top 16 of the match play, then was just outside the top 20 at Avondale last week.
In 2014 he reached the final of the English Amateur Chamipionship at North Devon's Saunton, which propelled him into the England A squad for 2015.
After a year of adjusting to his meteoric rise from county to country having barely established himself as a regular in the Hampshire team before losing the English final to Yorskhire's Nick Marsh, Gregory then lost in the final of the 2016 Spanish Amateur Championship in Seville.
He lost to France's reigning British Amateur champion Romain Langasque, but that defeat paved the way for his vicitory in last year's British Amateur Championship at Royall Porthcawl.
That win over Scot Robert MacIntyre earned him entry into last year's Open Championship at Royal Troon, and an invite to Augusta in just two months'time.
He will also play in the US Open Erin HIlls, in June, and last week was named in the provisional squad for September's Walker Cup clash against America, in Los Angeles.
Gregory plans to turn pro after that with a probable trip to the European Tour Qualifying School, in the autumn.
SCOTT QUALIFIES FOR NSW AMATEUR
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QUICK TURNAROUND EN ROUTE TO AVONDALE
Scott Gregory could be much happier with his performance at last week’s Australian Amateur Championship at Melbourne’s Yarra Yarra GC, having shaken off some of the rust before in the Australian Master of the Amateurs at Royal Melbourne GC, in early January.
Having finished in 16th place in the 36-hole Australian Amateur played over Yarra Yarra and Peninsula Kingswood GC, it took the strokeplay champion Kevin Yuan to halt Gregory’s charge to become just the second Englishman to win the Matchplay crown Down Under in 124 years.
The Hampshire ace was one down going down the last but pressing to take the match into extra holes, he could not make the birdie he needed on the 18th and finally lost the battle to earn a place in the quarter finals by two holes.
Earlier Greogry had seen off Aussie Mark Hyde 3&2 before hammering the host nation’s Will Heffernan – ranked 624th in the world – 5&4 after a fast start.
But he could not repeat that scoring in Friday afternoon’s third round clash.
Gregory no sooner had been knocked out, then he was packing up his golf club for the trip to northern Sydney.
He teed it up in the Avondale Amateur in the early hours of Tuesday morning UK time, and shot a one-under par 70 to be four shots behind Australian Shae Wools-Cobb - who lost to eventual Australian Amateur champion Matias Sanchez in the last eight, on Saturday.
Also high up on the leaderboard is Gregory’s former Hampshire Boys team-mate Jack Singh-Brar, from the New Forest, who now plays his golf at Dorset’s Remedy Oak, who is tied second on four-under par with Derbyshire’s Bradley Moore.
After Wednesday’s second and final round at Avondale, Scott and the other three members of the official England party, including Golf at Goodwood’s Marco Penge, and Kent’s Lytham Trophy winner Alfie Plant, plus Derbyshire’s Bradley Moore, will be travelling to Sydney’s Terrey Hills Golf & Country Club and Killara GC, which will host the New South Wales Amateur, from January 31-February 3.
View all the latest from the Avondale Amateur.
Andrew Griffin reports on the 1st Round of Qualifying for Australian Amateur.
Scott Gregory’s bid to become just the second Englishman to win the Australian Amateur Championship got off to a great start at the Peninsula Kingswood Golf Club, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Masters champion Danny Willett and US Open champion Jason Day claimed the Australian Strokeplay title in 2008 and 2006 respectively.
But despite the success of three Scotsmen in the matchplay event that follows the first two days of medal play, over the last 14 years, only one Englishman has ever gone on to win the famous Victorian Golf Cup - Middlesex’s Warren Bennett back in 1994.
After shaking off the rust in his opening event two weeks ago in the Australian Master of the Amateurs at the famous Royal Melbourne course, Gregory opened his bid to become the first player to win the amateur crown in the UK and Down Under, with a fine 69 at Kingswood, which is in the outskirts of Melbourne.
The three-under par total left the Hampshire man in a group tied in fifth place, alongside Wales’ US college player David Boote, a member at Surrey’s famous Walton Heath, who is likely to become a Walker Cup team-mate of Gregory in September, in Los Angeles.
Scott makes the short trek to the Yarra Yarra, where scoring was much tougher on day one – courtesy of the par 70 set up which has seen two of the course’s traditional par fives over the closing three holes reduced to par fours for the championship.
With 20 of the 21 leading scores out of the 234-strong field in the first round all recorded at Kingswood, something close to par at Yarra Yarra should be sufficient to book Gregory’s place in the top 64 who will progress into the six rounds of matchplay between Thursday and Sunday.
With Gregory the highest ranked player in the field in the absence of Australia’s US Amateur Champion Curtis Luck, the World No. 2, few will fancy their chances of meeting the player who emerged victorious in the Amateur final at Royal Porthcawl, back in June to book his place in the Masters.
Having finished 59th in the Australian Masters, when the lightning fast greens at more than 15 on the stimp, saw Scott putt himself off the green on a couple of occasions, Gregory was better prepared for this week’s challenge, having played rounds at the world renowned Kingston Heath and the extremely exclusive Capital Golf Club in the build-up. Starting at the 10th, Gregory ran off a string of four consecutive pars before a double bogey six at the 14th threatened to derail his bid. But he bounced backed immediately with a birdie two and after parring the last par five, birdied 17 and 18 to get back in red figures. He then make it three birdies in a row with a three at the first and got to three-under with another three at the seventh to post a 69.
You can follow lives scoring in the Australian Amateur at www.golf.org.au
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