Graham has chance to add to Scottish title success in South African Amateur
Gregor Graham is tantalisingly close to becoming the fifth Scot to be crowned as the South African Amateur champion in the past 14 years.
Graham, the big brother of Walker Cup history-maker Connor, is through to today’s 36-hole final in this year’s edition at Royal Johannesburg after pulling off two brilliant wins.
In the quarter-finals yesterdaymorning, graham produced an eagle and seven birdies as he beat Dutch man jack ingham 2&1. He then found himself two down early on to home player Pearce Lewin in the afternoon semi-finals before producing some brilliant golf to turn that tie around.
Graham won the sixth with a birdie, eighth with an eagle and ninth with a birdie to get his nose in front at the turn. He then went two up with a birdie-2 at the 12th before increasing his advantage once more with a birdie at the 15th before going onto close out an impressive 4&2 victory.
His opponent in the final will be Ebotse Golf & Country Estate’s Jordan Burnand, who came from behind to beat leading qualifier Benjamin Weber 5&3 in an all-south African affair in the other last-four match.
Graham, who created history last year as the first amateur to win on the Tartan Pro Tour, is bidding to add to Scotland’s success story over the past decade or so in the GOLFRSA event.
Michael Stewart (Troon Welbeck) sparked it when he landed the title in 2011, with the feat then being emulated the following year by Leven’s Brian Soutar before Craigie Hill’s Daniel Young and Kirkhill’s Craig Ross also pulled off back-toback wins in 2015 and 2016.
On a Scottish Golf trip that is being funded by the Alfred Dun hill links foundation, Graham has already finished second in the Gauteng North Open and also made the top ten in the South African Stroke-play Championship.
His brother Connor, who became the youngest-ever player to compete in the Walker Cup in last year’s match at St Andrews, had also been due to make the trip before suffering an injury just before the group headed out to South Africa.
Meanwhile, Hannah Darling is set to make her third appear blairgowrie’ s ance in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur after securing an invitation for the 2024 edition in April.
The 20- year-old Broomiek no we member and university of South Carolina junior will be among just three british players – English duo Charlotte Heath and Lottie Woad are the others – in the 72-strong field on April 3-6. Darling was among 43 players eligible for the tournament once again through the World Amateur Golf Ranking who accepted invitations.
Joined by compatriot Louise Duncan on her first appearance in the event, Darling finished joint-27th in 2022 before missing out on advancing to the final round by one stroke last year.
Earlier this week, darling was unbeaten in helping the University of South Carolina win the Therese Hession Regional Team challenge at palosve rd es Golf Club in California.
The win, a second team triumph of the season, marked the 25th of head coach Kalen Anderson’s career at South Carolina.