Joe Dean
LEEDS, England — Yorkshire’s Joe Dean will
carry local hopes when he meets Alfie Plant of
Kent in
tomorrow’s 36-hole final of the English Amateur
Championship at The Alwoodley Golf Club.
Dean (Lindrick) claimed his place when he beat
Rob Burlison (Enville) 2/1 in the semi-finals.
Plant
(Sundridge Park) had to go to the 20th to end
the challenge of another Yorkshire player, Jamie
Bower (Meltham).
“It hasn’t really sunk in,” said Plant, 23 (pictured
below). “All week I’ve been so focussed on
getting
to the final, doing all I can to get there – and
now I’m there. It’s going to be a good
match.”
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Alfie Plant |
This afternoon’s match, he said,
was not pretty - but it made up for that in
drama.
Bower had the early advantage, but for much of
the match they were all square before Plant got
one
ahead on the 17th. However, he stumbled on the
18th, finding a bunker off the tee, coming out
into
long grass and bogeying the hole, while Bower
played two great shots to reach the green.
On the 19th Bower had the advantage after
playing another super shot into the green, but
his putt
slipped by. “I had my hat half off,” said Plant,
who’d watched the Yorkshireman sink an
identical putt
first time round.
Plant played safe on the 20th, taking an iron off
the tee and knocking his approach to within 10ft
of
the pin. Bower found a bunker with his drive and
his second went just over the green from where
he
took three to get down – and conceded the
match.
Joe Dean, 21, won another close encounter
which, by his account, was packed with
adventurous
situations. His short game was well and truly
tested and he came through with flying colours,
for
example getting up and down from 50 yards and
later from 100.
He started well, winning the first two holes with
birdies, but by the fifth he had been pulled back
to
all square and he fell one behind when Burlison
birdied the short 7th.
The lead then swung between the two players.
Dean got one ahead after birdies on the eighth
and
10th. Burlison, in turn, was one ahead after the
13th.
But Dean won the short 14th with a par and
holed a 15ft putt on 15 for another birdie and a
crucial,
one-hole advantage. Two pars later and he’d
claimed his place in the final.
Dean’s first aim in this championship was to do
better than last year, when he reached the
quarter
finals. “Once I got past that I felt as though a lot
of pressure had lifted. There’s still a lot of
pressure
coming down the last few holes but I have
enjoyed it a lot more, my attitude has been 100
times
better than normal and I’ve felt a lot
calmer.”
In this morning’s semi-finals Dean beat George
Bloor (Cavendish) 1 up; Burlison beat Scott
Gregory
(Corhampton) 1 up; Bower beat Jake Storey
(Alnmouth) 3/2; and Plant beat Tom Robson
(Weymouth) 4/3.
ABOUT THE
English Amateur
The English Amateur was played in its inaugural
year of 1925 at Hoylake when local golfer T
Froes Ellison captured the title. He successfully
defended the following year at Walton
Heath, a feat achieved by only six others: Frank
Pennink, Alan Thirlwell, Michael Bonallack, Harry
Ashby, Mark Foster, and Paul Casey. Sir Nick
Faldo is the most famous to have won the event
as the six-time major champion won the 1975
tournament at Royal Lytham & St. Annes.
The tournament consists of two stroke
play rounds, after which the top 64 players
will advance to the match
play rounds, culminating in a 36-hole final
between two finalists.
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