Spanish International Men’s Amateur first round matchplay round-up
FORMAT: 36-hole stroke play / 6-round matchplay
English Amateur champion John Gough survived an epic battle with his fellow countryman Jack Brooks (The Mere) to reach the last 32 of the Spanish International Men’s Amateur today.
The No 5 seed from The Berkshire made it through at the fifth extra hole, rolling in a six-footer to finally see off the Lancashire player.
Brooks made a shaky start and was two down at the turn but raised his game on the back nine and won the 10th and 11th with birdies before taking the lead on the 15th with a par.
Gough hit back with a birdie on 17 before the Bolton-based golfer shaved the hole from eight feet at the last. Then at the first play-off hole The Berkshire player failed from five feet to seal the deal but didn’t make the same mistake again at the difficult fifth, which was being played into the wind.
In tomorrow’s second round – the last 16 ties will be played in the afternoon – the England international meets Scotland’s Lewis Irvine, who almost threw away a four-hole lead before critically retaking the lead on the last.
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The Kirkhill ace won the first, third, fifth, lost the eighth but then claimed the ninth and 10th to establish the big lead.
But the Glasgow-based student stumbled coming down the stretch and it was A/S after 17 before Belgian Jean De Wouters D’Oplinter bogeyed the last to hand victory to the 22-year-old.
There was no such drama for Irvine’s international team-mate Rory Franssen, who put in a dominant display against Dutchman Bob van der Voort. The in-form Aucterarder player was five up thru eight, birdies at the second, sixth and eighth helping him to a 6&4 victory
Van der Voort won the ninth but then bogeyed the tenth and 11th and Franssen won the 14th with a two to see out the match in style.
In the battle of English Boys team-mates, Josh Hill (Trump, Dubai) charged to a 5&4 victory over Jack Bigham (Harpenden) while the highest-ranked player in the competition – Sam Bairstow (Hallowes) – enjoyed a great tussle with highly-rated Spanish teenager Angel Ayora Fanegas, who edged out the World No 13 at the second extra play-off hole.