Yorkshire county champion Danny Willett, No.1 in the R&A World Amateur Rankings, is the most successful Yorkshire player in history as holder of three national titles.
Willett reached that mark with his victory in the Australian Amateur Strokeplay Championship at Royal Adelaide.
And he will go for a fourth when the Brabazon Trophy (English Amateur Strokeplay) is played at Trevose, Cornwall, on May 16-18.
Will
ett, who missed adding the Australian matchplay title that followed on from the strokeplay – he beat Australian Chris Brown 6&4 but then lost 4&3 to New Zealand's Dan Lee – holds the English Amateur title from last season and added the Spanish Amateur crown earlier this year.
When he tees up at Trevose the Rotherham 20-year-old will bid to become the first player to hold both English titles since Worksop's Mark Foster in 1995.
At that time Foster was joint holder of the Brabazon.
Along with Willett in the multi- national field will be fellow English elite squad members Gareth Evans (Northcliffe) and Steve Uzell (Hornsea), both also exempt from qualifying, as is Wike Ridge veteran Roger Roper as a past champion.
Nine other Yorkshire players will bid to qualify on the preceding Wednesday and Thursday.
l Naomi Edwards, the English champion from Ganton, beat Korea's Ja Noh in the first round of the Australian Women's Amateur at Royal Adelade but then bowed out by one hole to Justine Lee, from New South Wales.
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YORKSHIRE Curtis Cup choice Jodi Ewart, a student at New Mexico University, came from behind over the final round to win the Mountain West Women's Conference championship over her home college course at Albuquerque.
The English strokeplay champion from Catterick is the first to win the MWC title two years in a row and the first from her university to win back-to-back titles since its women's golf programme was set up in 1977.
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FRASER KELLEY was denied overall victory in the opening Yorkshire PGA tournament of the season, the Links Challenge at Bridlington Links yesterday, after he posted an early two under par 70.
Malton & Norton-attached Kelley was joined in a three-way tie by Adrian Ambler, the Yorkshire PGA champion.
Defending champion John Wells finished a couple of shots back while Chris Hanson, a PGA Europro Tour member making his debut in a Yorkshire PGA event, ended a shot adrift of top spot.
Leading scores: 70 - F Kelley (Malton & Norton); A Ambler (Walton Golf Centre); D Padgett (Pannal).
71 - G Wills (Fulford); D Kidd (Otley); S Barber (Waterton Park); A Belt (Bridlington Links); M Marsh (Hallowes); J King (Lindrick); C Hanson (Crosland Heath); D Connell (Scarborough SC). 72 - A Boynton (Skidby Lakes); L Jardine (Doncaster DR); R Kershaw (Mirfield DR); J Wells (Cherry Burton).
The full article contains 467 words and appears in EP Leeds First & County newspaper.
