Middlesbrough’s Katie Stephens was crowned English Amateur champion after an incredible final day of golf at Seaton Carew – as Harley Smith (The Rayleigh) lifted the men’s trophy in Teesside.
The lead changed hands six times in the 36-hole women’s final, as Katie overcame Shivani Karthikeyan (Peterborough Milton) in a fantastic battle. Neither player got more than two holes ahead throughout and in a dramatic finish, Shivani holed 25ft putts on the 34th and 35th holes before a mistake on the final hole gave Katie a hard-fought 2up victory.
“It feels surreal! I can’t believe it, but it feels pretty good,” said Katie. “I think the turning point for me was getting to the semi-finals as I’d never made it that far before. I felt pretty confident about my game all week, but I didn’t want to get cocky!”
In the final, Katie lost a ball on the second to give Shivani the lead and was 2dn after a mistake on the sixth. She then managed to hole some crucial par putts and fought back to lead after 10 holes. Shivani then holed a 25ft putt for birdie to win the 11th. Despite Katie almost driving the 12th, she couldn’t get up-and-down for birdie as her opponent stuck her approach to 12ft and won the hole with another birdie – her third win in a row.
The pair then exchanged holes before Katie made a par, birdie, par run late in the first round – including a 25ft birdie putt on 17. No holes were halved on the back nine in the morning, with the lead changing hands four times in the opening 18 holes.
After the lunch break, Shivani got caught in the rough on the first and Katie went 2up, but the roles reversed on the third to give the former the hole. Another errant tee shot on four allowed Shivani to level the match. Both players missed mid-range birdie putts on the fifth and then Shivani missed a 6ft putt to win the hole on the sixth. Katie had a chance to nick it on the seventh, but her putt lipped out and her opponent made her pay on the very next hole as she stuck one to 6ft and rolled it in for birdie.
The topsy-turvy nature of the match continued as Shivani found the sand on nine and the match returned to all-square. The pair halved the next four holes, then Shivani was off target from the tee and Katie’s par edged her ahead. Katie then got up-and-down on 15 to take a 2up lead with just three holes to play.
Shivani dug deep to rattle in two 25ft putts – first to win 16 with birdie and then to halve 17 – setting up a grandstand finish. She had to take a drop from the long grass after a wayward tee shot on the last, while Katie hit the green to seal a 2up win, marking an incredible week of golf in front of a great crowd at Seaton.
“After those putts [on 16 and 17] I was just telling myself, ‘Try and keep up with her, don’t make a mistake, don’t give it away,’” said Katie. “She got in trouble off the tee, so it was about making par and keeping it steady.”
Asked about celebrations, she added: “I’ll definitely chill out as it’s been a long week [with 10 rounds in eight days]. I’ll spend some time with my family and just enjoy it. I’m going to have to try and find somewhere at home for the trophy as there’s not much room!”
In the men’s final, Harley found himself 7up through 13, but an unimaginable comeback from Will Tate (The Cavendish) saw him take the match to an extra hole – where Harley, who holed out for eagle from distance on the ninth twice on Sunday, sealed victory as Will hit his tee shot out of bounds.
Harley said: “It’s an unbelievable feeling. With how the match started to the way Will played towards the end, it got very nervy, but I’m glad to be the English Amateur champion. The way he came back was unbelievable. At lunch I knew he was going to come out fighting and I knew it’d be a good game in the afternoon, but I kept telling myself to stay patient and keep chalking the holes off, but he just didn’t let up. I was like, ‘Is this guy ever going to go away?’”
Several of the region’s best players made the latter stages of the event – which was co-hosted between Seaton and Hartlepool over the first two days of strokeplay before the leading 64 men and 32 women competed in matchplay rounds at Seaton. Hexham’s Morgan Blythe made the last-16 in the men’s event, while Ramside’s Alex Stevenson reached the same stage in the women’s tournament.
