Matty Lamb came within a single shot of winning one of amateur golf’s top prizes at the St Andrews Links Trophy.
Matty, from Hexham Golf Club, opened his week in sensational form, shooting rounds of 64 on the Jubilee Course and 63 on the Old Course to reach 17 under-par and take a six shot lead into the final 36 holes.
He followed up those scores with rounds of 69 and 73 on the Old Course on the final day, and was just pipped to the trophy by Saunton’s Jake Burnage – who posted rounds of 66 and 69 for a 20 under-par total for four rounds.
Matty said: “The week at St Andrews was a great experience. I was in really good form and played some nice golf over the first two rounds. While things didn’t go to plan in the final 36 holes, it just came down to a couple of bad breaks and failing to hole the putts like I had in rounds one and two. I’m really happy with the result, one of my best to date, and my confidence is high going into the rest of the summer.”
Matty went on to compete in The Amateur Championship at Portmarnock – reaching the last 16. He came through a number of close matches to reach round four, beating Norway’s Jarle Volden 3&2 in round one before overcoming South Africa’s Yurav Premlall 3&1 and Japan’s Kengo Aoshima 1up. He was beaten 1dn in the last 16 by Ireland’s Ronan Mullarney.
Following those events, Matty was selected as part for the England team for the European teams championships.
He added: “Getting back into the England fold is a great feeling as it’s taken a lot of really good golf to get there. I’m currently top of the England Order of Merit and the Walker Cup is in my sights. I need to keep playing well and performing every week, but if I can do that, I’ve got a good chance of making the team.”
