Lipsky secures his spot in British Open
Top-ranked player on the Asian Tour will be making his second visit to the world’s oldest golf tournament at Royal Birkdale
ASIAN Tour Order of Merit leader David Lipsky of the United States has qualified for the British Open via the European Tour’s Race to Dubai rankings.
Lipsky, who also finished 2014 as the Asian Tour Order of Merit champion, was tied 10th at the BMW International Open in Germany and moved to 19th place on the Race to Dubai standings. With that he secured his ticket to Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England, where the British Open will be held from July 20 to 23 given that the first five European Tour members not otherwise exempt in the top-20 of the Race to Dubai Rankings after the BMW International Open make the grade.
This will be Lipsky’s second appearance at the Open, having made his debut in 2015.
From the Asian Tour he will be joined by Thongchai Jaidee, Jeunghun Wang, Phachara Khongwatmai, K.T. Kim, Scott Hend, Prayad Marksaeng, Jbe Kruger, Yikeun Chang, Kim Giwhan and Younghan Song.
Meanwhile, in Sandwich, England, Harry Ellis battled back from four holes down with five to play to win the 36-hole final of the 122nd British Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s Golf Club.
The 21-year-old from Meon Valley followed in the footsteps of his former Hampshire teammate, 2016 Amateur champion Scott Gregory, to lift the famous trophy after defeating Australia’s Dylan Perry in a dramatic match that went to the 38th hole.
Ellis, who became the youngest player to win the English Amateur Championship, aged just 16 in 2012, secured his slot in the 146th Open at Royal Birkdale, next year’s US Open at Shinnecock Hills and, by tradition, an invitation to the US Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club in 2018.
The match was extremely close for most of the day and the first 18 holes were nip and tuck with neither player able to build more than a one hole lead. The match was all square going into the afternoon and although Ellis won the 20th hole with a birdie three it was the Australian who seized the initiative.
Perry, who recently won the Riversdale Cup in his homeland, won four consecutive holes from the 22nd to go 3-up, before winning the 27th with a par to give him a commanding four hole lead with nine to play.
But Ellis fought back admirably after that and said afterwards: “It’s unbelievable. I can’t believe what I have just done but you should never give up and never give in.
“I just kept giving myself chances down the stretch and luckily played much better than I had all day and somehow it was good enough that we had to go to the 38th hole.
“I didn’t think I was ever done but I knew the task was getting tougher and tougher.”
Elsewhere, Leona Maguire won the 114th Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship.
At Pyle & Kenfig Golf Club she defeated Spain’s Ainhoa Olarra 3&2 in the 18-hole final on the South Wales coast to seal the biggest amateur win of her career.
Maguire will now take her place in US Women’s Open later this month and the Ricoh Women’s British Open at Kingsbarns, near St Andrews, in August, when she will aim to win the Smyth Salver as the low amateur for a second time after doing so at Woburn last year.
Maguire, who is number one in the women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking, becomes the first Irishwoman to win the championship since Stephanie Meadow defeated Spain’s Rocio Sanchez Lobato 4&3 at Carnoustie in 2012. – Asian Tour-R&A