SPANIARDS WIN ALL THREE TITLES
AT THE EUROPEAN YOUNG MASTERS
BALLESTEROS ...Olazabal .. Garcia ... and now 16-year-old Pablo Martin
looks like being the next world-class prospect to come off the Spanish
conveyor belt of golfing talent.
Pablo, who beat his much more fancied compatriot Rafael Cabrera in the
final of the British boys open amateur championship last summer, on Saturday
completed an astonishing FOURTEEN stroke victory in the European Young
Masters over 54 holes at Augsburg Golf Club in southern Germany, near
Munich.
Pablo, who came to this event with a handicap of two, simply outclassed
the other boys in this tournament for Under-16 year olds. He had rounds
of 69, 68 and 66 for a 13 under par total of 203. Over the 54 holes, Martin
had an astonishing 20 birdies, including eight in his closing six-under-par
66.
He birdied the first four in a row, then the sixth and ninth to be out
in 30 and then come home in par 36 with birdies at the 13th and 18th and
bogeys at the 11th and 17th.
The distant runner-up on one-over-par 217 was Wouter de Vries from the
Netherlands.
Zac Gould from Wales was joint third on 218 with rounds of 70, 72 and
76.
Gary Boyd of England was fifth on 219 (71, 74 and 74).
Maria Hernandez completed a notable double for Spain in the girls' event.
She had rounds of 72, 70 and 76 for 218 to win by two strokes from a pair
of French challengers, Melodie Bourdy, whose brother won the Scottish
youths open title at Murrayshall a few weeks ago, and Noemie Leloup.
Stefanie Michl from Austria, who won the SLGA St Leonards Under-16 girls'
open title at Drumoig in April finished fourth on 221.
No surprise that Spain won the team event also with a total of 636, 20
ahead of France with Ireland and England sharing third place on 669.
Normally in a Ryder Cup year, the leading finishers in the European Young
Masters gain automatic selection in a team of boys and girls to play the
United States youngsters in the Junior Ryder Cup match.
But the brilliant Pablo Martin will miss out because, like the "real"
Ryder Cup match, the teams selected for the Junior Ryder Cup 2001 contest
at the K Club, County Kildare, will keep their places for the match which
was put back to September 25 and 26 this year because of the September
11 atrocities in the United States last year.
The Scottish Golf Union and the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association,
for the second year in a row, did not enter any boys or girls for the
European Young Masters. Perhaps some Lottery Funding should be sought
to gave our best Under-16 year olds not only a chance of playing in future
Junior Ryder Cups (Vikki Laing has played in one) but also to gain experience
of playing with and against the rising stars of the Continent, such as
Pablo Martin.
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
BOYS
203 P Martin (Spain) 69 68 66.
217 W De Vries (Netherlands) 71 72 74.
218 C Blasi (Switzerland) 74 73 71, Z Gould (Wales) 70 72 76.
219 G Boyd (England) 71 74 74.
220 M Baldwin (England) 71 76 73.
221 J Mazario (Spain) 76 74 71, J Kaske (Finland) 76 74 71, M Hocaoglu
(Turkey) 74 73 74/
222 R Karlberg (Sweden) 75 71 76, J Bombezin (France) 73 78 71.
223 C McNamara (Ireland) 76 74 73.
226 E Andersson (Sweden) 77 74 75, K Kinsella (Ireland) 76 71 79, A Runcie
(Wales) 74 77 75.
227 L Williams (Belgium 74 78 75, J Ruggiero (Italy) 74 77 76.
228 N Ferdonnet (France) 82 77 69, P-M Hamm (Germany) 79 76 73, T Schulze-Bauer
(Austria) 79 69 80.
229 G Perne (Slovenia) 78 76 75, F Marzilli (Italy) 77 78 74, F Schulte
(Germany) 76 78 75.
GIRLS
218 M Hernandez (Spain) 72 70 76.
220 M Bourdy (France) 80 69 71, N Leloup (France) 77 69 74.
221 S Michl (Austria) 73 75 73.
222 T Delaney (Ireland) 75 74 73.
223 A Swanck (Spain) 77 68 78.
224 C Grignolo (Italy) 75 76 73.
226 P Lindberg (Sweden) 79 76 71.
228 J Barbier (Belgium) 77 76 75.
228 S Borchhardt (Switzerland) 79 77 73.
230 C Catanho (Portugal) 786 74 80.
232 F Johnson (England) 81 71 80.
233 M Vertchenova (Russia) 83 74 73.
234 K Werdinig (Auistria) 77 78 79.
237 F Froreich (Germany_ 78 77 82.
239 M Backstadt (Sweden) 84 80 75.
240 M Reid (England) 79 81 80.
241 S O'Sullivan (Ireland) 79 85 77.
245 A Rossi (Italy) 82 81 82.
247 A-Kristin (Norway) 78 85 84.
253 L Sarochova (Czech Republic) 83 82 88.
254 M Kodejsova (Czech Republic) 82 87 85.
257 V Falathova (Slovakia) 85 85 87.
261 S Gronlund (Finland) 88 88 85.
275 N Kahtava (Finland) 98 93 84.
TEAM EVENT
636 Spain
656 France
669 England, Ireland.
673 Sweden.
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