Rookie impresses the world at Woburn
It’s great to see the British Masters back on the calendar after a seven-year absence. The tournament, which originally began back in 1972 as the “Dunlop Masters”, returns to Woburn Golf Club this week (8th-11th October) with a prize fund of three million pounds, thanks to the support of Sky Sports Television. The course in Milton Keynes plays host to the event for the 17th time.
Over the years, the British Masters has thrilled the nation, and the rest of the world, producing an impressive honours board of golfing legends from several generations. Heroes such as Bob Charles (New Zealand), Lee Trevino (US), Tony Jacklin and Sir Nick Faldo from England, Ian Woosnam (Wales), Colin Montgomerie (Scotland), and the two times winners Bernard Gallacher (Scotland) in 1974, 1975; Greg Norman (Australia) in 1981, 1982; and the Spanish maestro Seve Ballesteros (pictured) in 1986, 1991, to name just a few.
Brits take the lead in British Masters
At the end of day one, rather appropriately, a British player led the British Masters. That honour went to a twenty-one year old Rookie on the European Tour. He is in fact just twenty-one. Twenty-one and one month, to be precise. His name is Matthew Fitzpatrick. He is from England and he stole the outright lead at Woburn with a magnificent opening round of 64, 7-under par.
There were two other Brits tucked-in just one shot behind him on 6-under par in a tie for second place: Marc Warren (Scotland) and Lee Slattery. The 37-year old from Southport is also enjoying a run of good form at the moment. In September, he won the Russian Open and, a week later, he was beaten by a whisker into second place in the Dutch Open. Alongside them, in a tie for second place at Woburn on 6-under, were Soren Kjeldsen (Denmark) and Robert Karlsson (Sweden).
Fitzpatrick found himself having to share his lead on Friday after he carded a 69 and Kjeldsen went one better with a 3-under par, 68. There were no fewer than twenty players in the chasing pack just four shots off the lead, including the Dutch Open’s hole-in-one “spaceman”, Andy Sullivan (Eng) and Dutch player, Joost Luiten, both on 5-under par.
The cut came at level par which is considerably higher than in recent weeks on the European Tour. Seventy-three players made the cut. The recently-crowned Dutch Open Champion from Belgium, Thomas Pieters scraping in on the cut-line with eleven others. Ironically among the nine players missing by just one stroke was last week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship winner, Thorbjorn Olesen from Denmark.
Young Fitzpatrick has been impressing the golf world for some years now. But it was in 2013 that he really hit the scene big time when he won the US Amateur Championship in dramatic fashion. His victory exalted him to number one on the World Amateur Golf Rankings. It is not surprising then that he should be making the transition from amateur to professional seem so easy. Indeed, he has notched up a host of top-five finishes already this season on the European Tour.
Fitzpatrick sticks to game plan
On Saturday, England’s Luke Donald set the clubhouse lead at 9-under par after carding a 65, the best round of the day. Fitzpatrick, like a seasoned pro, stayed patient and stuck to his game plan. His reward was a round of 68 which was good enough to keep him at the top of the leaderboard. He now shares the lead in the British Masters with Kiradech Aphibarnrat. And what a tournament the Tour pro from Thailand is having: three straight rounds of 67-67-67 for 12-under par.
Hot on their heels, one stroke behind, are Soren Kjeldsen and Paraguay’s only player on the European Tour, Fabrizio Zanotti.
Matthew Fitzpatrick, the youngest in the field, is in search of his first victory on the European Tour this week. Will it be a wire-to-wire win at Woburn?
Wendy Hoad