Scott Woltering will bid to become the first player from the Netherlands to win The R&A Boys’ Amateur Championship when he faces Viggo Olsson Mörk from Sweden in the Final at Moortown tomorrow.
Woltering is the first-ever Dutch finalist and will come up against Olsson Mörk in the 36-hole showdown at the West Yorkshire venue.
At nearby Alwoodley for The R&A Girls’ Amateur Championship, Matylda Krawczynska of Poland and another Swede, Havanna Torstensson, will face each other in their two-round contest for the prestigious title tomorrow.
Boys’ Amateur Championship
Woltering, 18, impressed in a 4&3 quarter-final win over Edwin Sjödin and then came up against Tom De Herrypon, who ended the hopes of Englishman Daniel Hayes in the morning after a two-hole last-eight success.
Woltering was two up after eight holes before slipping up at the 9th. His French rival mounted a superb reply thanks to back-to-back birdies at the 10th and 11th and edged ahead.
But Woltering, who finished 17th in stroke play qualifying, has shown battling qualities all week and bounced back at the next before he birdied the 15th to edge ahead and see out a one-hole triumph.
In the other semi-final, Harry Cox made a shaky start as the last remaining English hope.
The Hertfordshire player, who ousted countryman Phillip Krone in the quarter-finals by a 4&3 margin, started with three fives and was quickly two down.
A birdie at the 5th and a winning 18-feet putt at the 7th saw him draw all square with Olsson Mörk.
The pair still couldn’t be separated with five holes to play before the Swede’s concession at the 14th gave Cox the lead for the first time.
But 17-year-old Olsson Mörk, who was tenth in qualifying, claimed the next two holes after a concession and his decisive birdie at the 16th.
Olsson Mörk, who defeated Italy’s Biagio Andrea Gagliardi in the quarter-finals, will now aim to emulate the last Swedish Boys’ Amateur winner, Albert Hansson, in 2022.
Other Boys’ Amateur winners include Sir Michael Bonallack, José María Olazábal, Sergio Garcia, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Tom Lewis and David Howell.
Moortown – host to the 1929 Ryder Cup – is staging the Boys’ Amateur for a fifth time and the first since 1972.
Girls’ Amateur Championship
On a day of absorbing competition, Krawczynska recovered from a shaky start in her semi-final duel with Mannat Brar of India to win by a 3&2 margin.
Torstensson, aiming to become the third Swedish champion after Maria Hjorth in 1991 and Anna Nordqvist in 2005, booked her final berth with a polished 4&3 victory over Kylee Choi of the USA.
Krawczynska, blazing a trail for her country after becoming the first Pole to reach the Final, endured a nervy opening against Brar and a double-bogey on the 1st had her on the back foot.
The 18-year-old, who has won three successive Polish Junior Amateur Championships, eased her way into the contest, however, and made a decisive move around the turn.
Krawczynska, who beat Sweden’s Amanda Gyllner in the morning’s quarter-finals, rolled in a putt of 20 feet on the 8th for a spectacular eagle and then made birdies at the 10th and the 11th to forge a commanding three-hole advantage.
Brar continued to chip away valiantly but Krawczynska kept her rival at arm’s length with a classy, considered display and closed out a keenly-fought tussle on the 16th green.
Torstensson, who overcame Norway’s Henriette Spilling Gjelten in the last-eight, was bogey-free for the 15 holes it took her to beat Choi.
The 16-year-old was four-up at the turn, but Choi mounted a spirited rally and back-to-back birdies at the 11th and 12th helped reduce the deficit to two-holes.
Torstensson refused to be ruffled, however. The Swede, who will represent Europe in the Junior Solheim Cup next month, made a birdie on the 13th to repel Choi’s advances before clinching the victory on the 15th green.
Past winners of the Girls’ Amateur include major champions and Solheim Cup players such as Suzann Pettersen, Azahara Munoz and Georgia Hall.
More recently, Pia Babnik triumphed in 2019 and has already gone on to win on the Ladies’ European Tour.
Alwoodley is staging the Girls’ Amateur for the first time since 1983.
