Hampshire’s Scott Gregory won the 121st Amateur Championship after coming out on top in a closely fought final against Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre at Royal Porthcawl.
The 21-year-old from Corhampton held off a strong challenge from MacIntyre to seal a 2&1 victory in the 36-hole match.
Gregory, an England A international, can now look forward to teeing it up in the Open at Royal Troon next month, as well as next year’s US Open and Masters Tournament.
Gregory got off to a strong start, and led for most of the morning round, moving to 3up by the 12th. But McIntyre, the 2015 Scottish Amateur Champion, showed how he got to the final by winning the 15th with an excellent chip from thick rough left of the green, and then holing a 30-foot putt on the 16th to reduce the deficit to one.
The 19-year-old from Glencruitten missed a 4-footer at the next, which would have won him the hole, and Gregory bounced back with a delicate chip from a down slope by the 18th green to secure a half and retain a one-hole lead going into the afternoon.
The momentum shifted to MacIntyre in the early stages of the second round, and the Scot moved ahead for the first time in the match when he won the 20th and 21st holes with pars, after Gregory found the rough with his approaches to both holes.
The evenly matched pair traded holes over the next six holes, with the left-handed MacIntyre losing the 22nd after finding a greenside bunker. Gregory showed his mastery of bunker play with a fine escape from 60 yards short of the green at the next and holed from 8 feet to move back in front.
MacIntyre birdied the 24th to move back to all square, and Gregory replied with a birdie at the 118-yard par three 25th, when his tee shot finished a foot from the hole to edge in front. The Scot fought back once again, holing a 6-foot par putt to win the 27th, but Gregory, who was runner-up in this year’s Spanish Amateur Championship, enjoyed some good fortune on the 28th when he over-hit his chip from the side of the green and it struck the flag and dropped to a foot from the hole to earn him a half.
Gregory holed an 8ft putt from the back of the 30th to claim the hole and when MacIntyre found a greenside bunker at the 31st, the Englishman was 2up with five to play. When the 35th was halved in four, the players shook hands, with Gregory the relieved champion.
“You dream about moments like this when you are practicing all those hours and when you’re not playing as well as you’d like to,” said Gregory. “I think luck went my way a little bit. I got a couple of good lies in difficult spots, but I made the most of the opportunities that I had. I kept telling myself that if I got chances, I had to take them, because that’s what people who win these championships do. I knew that putt on 17 was the moment I needed to make it, so it was nice to do it.”
Looking ahead to next month’s Open Championship, he added: “Playing in The Open is going to be completely new experience for me, so hopefully I can get some decent practice rounds in and see where I go from there.”