YOUNG TRIO CAN EXTEND ENGLISH SUCCESSES IN GREECE - 10th Sep 2004

David Horsey (Styal), runner-up in this year’s English Amateur Championship, is one of three teenagers who will represent England in the 72-hole Greek Amateur Championship in Athens later this month.

He will be accompanied by Christopher Evans (Maxstoke Park) and Grant Slater (Carlyon Bay) at the Glyfada Golf Club from 23rd to 26th September.

Horsey and Evans, both 19, were in top form in the English Amateur at Hollinwell, claiming the scalps of top seeds during the week.

Horsey, from Wilmslow, advanced almost un-noticed until he put out one of the favourites, England International and Brabazon Trophy winner Matthew Richardson in the fourth round, the Cheshire lad winning at the 19th hole.

Evans, from Castle Bromwich, was equally unobtrusive until he eliminated another England cap, Sam Osborne in round five in another battle that went to extra holes. Evans was dormie three but Osborne battled back to take the tie to the 20th hole where Evans won through.

Horsey and Evans then clashed in the quarter finals with Horsey victorious by two holes before advancing to meet another International, James Heath from Surrey in the 36-hole final. That looked like being a one-sided affair as Heath won the first five holes, but Horsey, a regular in the Cheshire side, bravely battled back to eventually succumb 3 and 2.

Evans is a regular in the Warwickshire county side and finished joint first in the individual in the EGU Midland Group Qualifying at Woodhall Spa in June.

Slater, 18, from the Carlyon Bay club in Cornwall, a former South West Boys and Schools champion, has also been capped at under 16 level before making his debut at boys level in last year’s Boys Home Internationals.

This followed his joint first place in the Carris Trophy at Burnham & Berrow, while he also represented England in the Turkish Amateur. After playing against Sweden in the Boys International at Hunstanton earlier this year, Slater made a solid defence of the Carris Trophy at Northumberland, finishing equal ninth. He was also a member of the England team that successfully defended the Boys Home Internationals title at Portmarnock last month and helped Cornwall finish third behind Essex and Yorkshire in the recent Boys County Finals at Broadstone.

The Greek Amateur has been a happy hunting ground for English golfers, the title being brought home for the past two years. Heath won in 2003, while Lawrence Dodd finished first a year ago ahead of fellow international and Suffolk team mate Jamie Moul, the runner-up. Together with Eddie Vernon from Derbyshire, who was seventh, they won the Nations Cup. England successes go back even further. Yorkshire’s John Wells won the individual title in 1998, while Ben Welch, Andrew Paisley and Simon Young won the Nations Cup in 2000, Welch and Young finishing second and third in the individual.

Related Links

• http://www.englishgolfunion.org

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