Scottish golf is on a real high with Euan Walker becoming the sixth Scot in the past nine years to capture the prestigious African Amateur Championship with his success at Leopard Creek.
Walker, 23 stormed his way in the heatwave conditions to win by three shots and with the Kilmarnock (Barassie) golfer’s win coming just four days after Aberdonian David Law brilliantly eagled the last to win a maiden European Tour victory in Australia.
Scottish amateurs have now won six of the last nine African Amateur titles.
Liam Johnston, and now on the European Tour, won the event in 2017 while there’s been a host of other Scots to also win the title including Michael Stewart (2011), Brian Soutar (2012), Daniel Young (2015) and Craig Ross (2016).
Euan Walker captures 2019 African Amateur
Walker went into the fourth and final round leading by four shots and he got off to a brilliant start with three birdies in his opening four holes.
But the title looked shaky when he dropped five strokes in three holes from the fifth to be leading by just two.
Walker then regained the ascendency when he chipped-in for eagle at the par-5 13th hole and birdied the next before posting a winning 71 for his three shot win over Swede Ludwig Alberg (68).
“It was an emotional roller-coaster out there today,” said Walker in Martin Dempster’s piece in The Scotsman.
“I was really nervous during the round and the eagle on 13 put a bigger gap between me and the two guys I was playing with.
“At the time, it was absolutely huge and it allowed me to settle down, although it was still close. A lot of things went my way today and that chip in was one of them.
“I’ve been working on my short game a lot recently and I am glad in that moment it was very worthwhile.
“It feels absolutely amazing to win because it is something that I have been working towards my whole life, and particularly in the last two years where I have been full-time in elite amateur golf”.
FINAL SCORES
277 Euan Walker GBR 72 67 67 71
280 Ludwig Aberg SWE 70 68 74 68
281 Garrick Higgo 70 67 73 71
282 Kartik Sharma IND 74 67 73 68; Jayden Schaper 69 69 74 70
283 Keelan van Wyk 74 69 72 68; Wilco Nienaber 74 66 74 69
286 Therion Nel 77 69 71 69
287 Maxmilian Herrmann GER 78 70 71 68; Samuel Simpson 77 68 73 69
288 Billy McKenzie GBR 77 67 74 70; David Langley GBR 75 74 68 71; Gaelen Trew GBR 72 71 71 74
289 Jim Johnston SCO 76 70 70 73; Samual Mckenzie 76 69 74 70; Tom Plumb GBR 73 67 75 74; Martin Vorster 71 72 73 73
291 Christiaan Burke 78 73 66 74; Kyle de Beer 77 70 74 70; Gustav Andersson SWE 73 73 73 72
292 Malcolm Mitchell 79 67 75 71; Armand van Dyk 76 72 71 73; Christiaan Maas 75 72 71 74; Keagan Thomas 75 71 73 73
293 Joseph Long GBR 78 75 67 73; Hennie O’Kennedy 75 72 70 76; Yurav Premlall 74 71 74 74; Alexander Herrmann GER 73 73 70 77
294 Anant Singh Ahlawat IND 76 72 73 73; Paulus Jorg GER 75 71 77 71; Ryan van Velzen 70 75 80 69
295 Luca Filippi 78 69 72 76; Karabo Mokoena 72 75 74 74
296 Varun Parikh IND 75 73 74 74; Jannik De Bruyn GER 74 74 75 73; Gregg Gilson 74 70 77 75
297 Jordan Duminy 77 72 74 74; Gianni Pera 76 76 74 71; Kieran Cantley SCO 76 74 76 71
