Ireland’s last remaining competitors bowed out at the R&A Girls’ and Boys’ Amateur championships at Carnoustie today with New Forest’s Adam Kelly losing 4&2 to Louis Anceaux of France and Olivia Costello of Roscommon losing to England’s Emily James 5&4 in the last 16 round.
Thailand’s Eila Galitsky and Louis Anceaux from France impressed to reach the quarter-finals as for the first time, the match play stages are being played simultaneously at one venue over the renowned Angus links.
On a cooler and windier day at last year’s AIG Women’s Open venue, conditions were trickier but it proved no hindrance to Galitsky. Experiencing links golf for the first time this week, the 15-year-old was victorious against Maggie Whitehead from England to progress to the last-eight of the Girls’ Amateur.
With the rounds of 32 and 16 played in the Boys’ Amateur today, Anceaux was among those to impress as he defeated highly-ranked Spaniard Jamie Montojo Fernandez.
The Girls’ Amateur
Four English players have booked their place in the quarter-finals of the Girls’ Amateur Championship.
Having yesterday knocked out the leading stroke play qualifier Paula Martin Sampedro, Amelia Wan continued her form with a 4&2 win over another Spaniard, Julia Sanchez Morales.
Lottie Woad, winner of the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters this year, battled to a 2&1 win against Paula Balanzategui Garcia, also from Spain. Rachel Gourley and Ellise Rymer are the other two English players in the last-eight and they face each other tomorrow morning. Gourley saw off Avani Prashanth from India 4&2 while Rymer defeated Spain’s Paula Francisco 3&2.
There was Spanish success for Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio, the world-ranked number 48, as she prevailed 5&4 against England’s Cherry Marley.
Galitsky, the sole Thailand player in the field, is also into the quarter-finals after her win over Whitehead, where she was joined by Wales’ Emily James and Nathalie Borg from Sweden.
Previous winners of the Girls’ Amateur include major champions Georgia Hall and Anna Nordqvist and, more recently, Pia Babnik, already a two-time winner on the Ladies’ European Tour.
The Boys’ Amateur
Anceaux led the way into the Boys’ Amateur Championship quarter-finals having defeated Kelly earlier in the day and had a convincing 5&3 win against Montojo Fernandez.
The 17-year-old Frenchman got off to the ideal start, winning the first three holes, and didn’t let his opponent, who is ranked 150th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking, find a way back into the match.
Fernandez’s compatriot Jorge Siyuan Hao maintained his impressive form to secure his last-eight place against Anceaux, but England’s Jack Lee made him work hard for the win, taking the match down the last before missing the decisive par putt to keep the match alive.
It was a good afternoon for the Swedes with Albert Hansson seeing off the challenge of Thomas Buisson from France by 3&2 and Didrik Ringvall Bengtsson coming through by 2&1 against Italy’s Filippo Ponzano.
Wales’ Caolan Burford is joined by Englishmen Kris Kim and Morgan Blythe in tomorrow’s round of eight while Eugenio Bernardi is flying the flag for Italy after winning the last match against Swede Wilmer Edero.
Hopes of a home winner were ended in the morning’s round of 32 when Scottish Men’s Amateur Champion Oliver Mukherjee was dismissed 4&3 by Hao and Cormac Sharpe lost out by 3&1 against Joe Jones from Wales. Irish hopes were also ended when Adam Kelly was defeated by Anceaux 4&2.
The quarter-finalists are bidding to join a championship roll of honour that includes Matt Fitzpatrick, Sergio Garcia, Jose Maria Olazabal and Ewen Ferguson, the current leader at the ISPS Handa World Invitational on the DP World Tour.
For the first time, the 36-hole finals of both championships on Sunday will be live streamed at Carnoustie and can be watched on The R&A’s website at www.randa.org as well as on The R&A YouTube channel.
The Girls’ and Boys’ Amateur championships are supported by EventScotland.
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