Opening Golf to the World
Boys' Amateur
Thomas produces birdie blitz to progress in Boys' Amateur
12 Aug 26
6 mins
Harry Thomas’ bold, attacking approach was rewarded at Gailes Links as an early birdie blitz helped the Welsh teenager power through the opening match play round in the Boys’ Amateur Championship.
Fifty years after Mark Mouland became the first golfer from Wales to win the under-18s showpiece in 1976, Thomas made a purposeful start to his bid to emulate that feat with a 6&5 victory of the highly-rated American, Clint Lewis. On another pleasant and benign day on the Ayrshire coast, the 18-year-old was quickly into his stride with five birdies in his first eight holes as he stamped his authority on affairs and established a commanding lead. Lewis, a team-mate of Tiger Woods’ son, Charlie, in The Benjamin School side in Florida, never recovered from that initial assault from the relentless Thomas. Five-up playing the 12th, Thomas made a terrific up-and-down from the back of the green which salvaged his par and helped him into a six-hole lead. On the 13th, the Welshman flicked an approach into six feet and, despite Lewis knocking his own second shot even closer, Thomas closed the door with clinical efficiency and rolled in his birdie putt to seal the win. “The strategy is to make as many birdies as I can and make it as tough as possible for my opponent to win any holes,” said Thomas, who opted to represent Wales at the age of 15 and qualifies through his Welsh mother. “I knew I would have to play well so I just got my foot down early and got the job done. “I holed a 12-footer for birdie on the first and that got me going. I putted well so hopefully I can keep making chances and taking them. I want to be a hard person to beat.”
Harry Thomas defeated Clint Lewis in the opening round of match play.
In the opening contest of the last-64, Cole Self shrugged off the pressure that comes with being the number one seed and battled to a 3&2 win over Germany’s David Suentzenich.
In a nip-and-tuck encounter, that was all-square through 11 holes, Self produced a telling thrust with three birdies in a row from the 12th.
That profitable flurry was capped by a putt of 30-feet on the 14th which took him into a three-hole lead.
“I didn’t play that well for the first nine holes to be fair and nobody could get a grip of the match,” admitted Self.
“But I stayed patient and the birdies eventually arrived. All of a sudden, I was three-up.
“Being the number one seed was in the back of my mind to be honest when I teed-off. I felt there were a few eyes on me but now that I’ve got through the first match it feels like those eyes are off me now.”
Cole Self booked his spot in the next round of match play.
Norway’s Mathias Aase, who finished joint top of the stroke play leaderboard but was the number two seed based on his higher second round score, demonstrated his match play mettle with a 3&1 victory over France’s Nicolas Viroleau.
In a topsy turvy tussle, Aase, who won the French Junior Open earlier this season, was two-up through five before losing three holes on the spin and finding himself one-down at the turn.
The pendulum would swing back in his favour on the run in, though.
“On the 13th he holed an eight-footer for birdie and I managed to hole mine too from four-feet to make sure the match stayed all-square,” said the 17-year-old of a key moment.
“After that I had a couple of birdies to get ahead. Match play golf changes very quickly and I stayed calm, trusted my game and got through it.”
Stepan Plasek of the Czech Republic, the highest-ranked player in the field, was an early casualty as he lost 4&3 to Spain’s Javier Domingo Calvo.
Full results from the first match play round are available here.