AMATEUR
Soutar Wins South African Match Play
Leven Golfing Society’s Brian Soutar has
kept the Sanlam South African Amateur title
in Scottish hands after he brilliantly emulated
compatriot Michael Stewart to claim the biggest title of his career.
The 27-year-old Fifer has taken his golf to
a new level after defeating South Africa’s No 1
amateur player, 18-year-old
Brandon Stone, 2 and 1, in the
36-hole final at Mowbray Golf
Club in Cape Town on Friday.
Soutar is part of a seven-
man SGU National Men’s
Squad who are in South
Africa for a winter perfor-
mance programme.
In winning South Africa’s
oldest and most coveted am-
ateur competition, Soutar has
etched his name on a trophy
whose winners include Ernie
Els and Retief Goosen and
also booked his place in the
European Tour’s South Africa Open in November.
After the first 18 holes of a gripping final
finished all-square, Soutar moved 2 up with
successes at the second and seventh holes of
the afternoon round, before Stone showed his
battling qualities with victories at the 11th and
13th to draw level again.
But Soutar refused to let the contest slip
from his grasp and claimed wins at the 14th,
thanks to a superb eagle, and the 16th. A par- 4
at the 17th was enough for glory.
READ MORE RESULTS
Brian Soutar
HILUTA SURPRISES IN SPAIN
England’s Jack Hiluta scored the biggest
win of his golfing career Sunday when he beat
Germany’s highly rated Marcel Schneider by
Hull Off GB&I Curtis Cup Team
After Choosing To Skip Trials
The GB&I Curtis Cup team suffered a serious blow when England’s highest-ranked player,
Charley Hull, declined to participate in the Curtis
Cup training at Nairn from 23-25 March and instead
chose to to play in the Kraft Nabisco Championship,
the first professional women’s major of the year.
The LGU asked her to reconsider and indicated
that they would help her leave Nairn in time to catch
a Sunday flight to America. The teenager, though,
had made up her mind. She felt that she would do
better to spend her time practising in the States.
In what was a less than formal epistle to the
LGU, she wrote: “That’s my final decision. I would
of kicked myself if I would of refused it (the Kraft
invitation) and then didn’t get picked (for the Curtis
Cup)! Would have been different it was the same
time as the C cup but as it’s a practice/trial my
decision is to play in the first major of the LPGA.”
By Thursday, Susan Simpson at LGU head-
quarters was saying that the decision had been
taken not to consider Hull for the match itself.
Simpson issued the statement, “Charley has let
us know that the Kraft Nabisco is her priority. We
wish her well.”
Intriguingly, Stephanie Meadow, another squad
member who, like Hull, signed an agreement to
attend the squad session at Nairn, is flying back
from Alabama in a bid to catch the selectors’ eye.
Plenty of professional golfers, including Karen
Stupples and Catriona Matthew, have said the
LGU are in the wrong and that they should not
be attaching so much importance to the training weekend. Stupples added that they should be
proud that Hull had been invited to play in a major.
In different circumstances, they might have been.
Stephen Gallacher, on the day he announced
his Stephen Gallacher Junior Foundation, was
among those who felt the LGU were in the right.
Gallacher recalled how, when he won the Scottish
Amateur championship at 17, he fancied turning
professional straightaway.
He rang his Uncle Bernard, the former Ryder
Cup captain, who promptly put him straight. He
told him he needed to win more amateur events
– and that he should play in a Walker Cup and go
through the whole amateur process.
“It was the best advice I ever had,” said Gallacher. “I will be advising players on my foundation to go through the same channels as I went
through. What’s wrong at the moment is that too
many young players are getting too serious – too
like professionals – too soon. We will be having
a bit of a laugh with our players. Amateur golf is
meant to be fun.” l
