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The Amateur
Connor Graham tops stroke play qualifying at The Amateur Championship for second year running
17 Jun 25
Long Read
Scotland’s Connor Graham has repeated history to claim top qualifying honours at The 130th Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s and Royal Cinque Ports.
For a second consecutive year, Graham has finished atop the leaderboard after 36-holes of stroke play qualifying, a shot ahead of the field, with a nine-under-par aggregate of 133. The 18-year-old from Blairgowrie, who is the 47th ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Rankings® (WAGR®), played exemplary golf in benign conditions on the sunny Sandwich Bay coast, recording a bogey-free six-under-par 64 across the famed links of Royal St George’s following his three-under-par 69 at Royal Cinque Ports yesterday. Heading out in two-under thanks to birdies on the par-4 5th and par-5 7th holes, the Texas Tech University freshman continued with a trio of birdies from the par-4 12th hole before adding another at the par-3 16th hole to find familiar territory as the best of the top-64 who progress to the match play. Graham hopes to progress further in the Championship this year following his defeat in the round of 32 at Ballyliffin in 2024. “It's nice to be back in the UK playing some links golf and I’m happy to come up with two good rounds the last two days. I just need to kind of reset and then prepare for tomorrow's game as best I can. “I played the European Amateur Team Championship a few years ago now, so I knew the course fairly well before coming here. I've been playing links golf a while now, so I definitely know how to play it and I’m kind of used to it, which will be a big advantage.”
Connor Graham topped the stroke play leaderboard for the second year running.
Also safely progressing to the match play stage of the Championship are Ugo Malcor of France and Matteo Cristoni of Italy, who were Graham’s closest challengers for the top honour.
The Frenchman, who held the lead for most of the day, consolidated his exceptional opening round at Royal Cinque Ports (66) with another solid score at Royal St George’s today, recording a two-under-par 68 to a be a stroke behind on eight-under-par 134.
The Mississippi State golfer made three birdies, a bogey, and 14 pars earlier this morning to earn his way into the match play where he is joined by Cristoni who recorded consecutive rounds of 67, highlighted by his bogey-free performance at Royal Cinque Ports yesterday.
The 23-year-old Italian finds himself in the match play of The Amateur Championship for a fourth time in five years. His best result was in 2022, when he progressed to the round of 32 before being defeated by the eventual champion Aldrich Potgieter of South Africa.
“I played really solid from the tee. I hit a lot of fairways. I didn't miss a lot of greens. So I gave myself a lot of opportunities, and some putts dropped, some others stayed on the lip.
“Overall, I'm really happy with my performance. Making the cut here at The Amateur is really, really hard, and to be near the top is really amazing.”
Matteo Cristoni in action at The Amateur Championship.
Other notable qualifiers are world number five Tommy Morrison of the United States, his compatriot and world number seven Ethan Fang, last year’s runner-up, Dominic Clemons of England and fellow Englishman Kris Kim, winner of the R&A Boys’ Amateur Championship in 2023.
The qualifying cut mark fell at one-under-par with 24 players returning to Royal St George’s at 7am tomorrow for a play-off to determine the final five places.
After 288 players began the Championship, a total of 64 players will contest the match play stage, which gets underway tomorrow.
The winner of this year’s Championship gains entry to The 153rd Open at Royal Portrush, the US Open and, by tradition, will earn an invitation to compete at the Masters Tournament. In addition to three major championships, they also earn a place in the field at the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo on the DP World Tour.