Plant seeks to bow out from amateur ranks with Walker Cup victory in US
The last amateur event Alfie Plant will play in is the one he has been looking forward to the most. The Englishman, who made such an impression in winning the Silver Medal in July’s Open Championship, is part of the Great Britain and Ireland team who will attempt to win on US soil this weekend for the first time in 16 years.
The home side are inevitably the overwhelming favourites to prevail in the two-day match at Los Angeles Country Club, but Plant believes it will be anything but a pushover for the Americans, despite them boasting seven of the top 12 in the world amateur rankings. “We’ve known each other as a team for a long time, coming through junior golf together,” Plant said. “We are a tight unit and have a lot of camaraderie. The group feels special.”
At 25, Plant is the oldest – and after his exploits at Royal Birkdale he is probably the best known. Backed by a vocal group of supporters, all wearing “Team Alfie” T-shirts, the son of a postwoman became the only one of the five amateurs in the field to make the cut and so took his place alongside Jordan Spieth in the prize-giving ceremony on the 18th.
Team Alfie: A first professional event in Portugal in two weeks is looming for Alfie Plant
“That was a very special moment, one that I’ll never forget,” Plant said. “But at the start of this season it was very much the Walker Cup that was the aim. It is for every British and Irish amateur lad, because of its history and everything. It is a great ambition to fulfil.”
Plant, the reigning European Amateur champion, was heavily courted by the management companies in the wake of the Open and, after meeting with White Rose, the agency owned by Liverpool footballer James Milner, he settled on Lagardere, the American giant that represents Phil Mickelson.
Plant will make his professional bow at the Portugal Masters on the European Tour in two weeks’ time and will try to go through qualifying school. For now, however, his sights are firmly set on helping Andrew Ingram’s men to win back-toback Walker Cups for just the second time in the 95-year history of the match, although it will obviously be a big task to emulate the class of 2001, which included Luke Donald and Graeme Mcdowell.
The one setback in the build-up was the withdrawal of Craig Watson from captaincy duties due to a serious illness in his immediate family. “We will be trying to win this for Craig,” Ingram said.