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ANNUAL
TOURNAMENTS
St
Andrews Links Trophy 2006
Oliver Fisher, King of the Links
Oliver Fisher confirmed his place at the top of the amateur game by winning the St Andrews Links Trophy 2006 with a final score of 280, seven under par.
Fisher, the 17-year-old from West Essex GC who last year was the youngest-ever player to represent Great Britain & Ireland in the Walker Cup, held off the challenge of Australia's Stephen Dartnall (282) and playing partner Keir McNicoll of Carnoustie (284) to claim the first big title of his career. Nigel Edwards (Whitchurch), Mitchell Brown (Bankstown GC, Australia) and Robert Dinwiddie ( Barnard Castle) were the only other players to beat par for the tournament which was played in testing conditions over the New Course and the Old Course.
Fisher, who later stated his desire to turn professional, acknowledged the contribution of St Andrews Open Champion Nick Faldo to his own success at the Home of Golf: ‘He has helped me a lot in recent years and his advice certainly made a difference this week. My goal at the start of the season was to win a major amateur event and I’m delighted to have done that here.’
After three successive under par rounds, Fisher took a three shot lead over Dartnall and Brabazon Trophy winner Robert Dinwiddie into the final round on a hot and windy Old Course.
A birdie at the first immediately put Fisher further ahead. A second birdie at the seventh helped to temper the effect of McNicoll’s chip in for eagle at the same hole. Meanwhile, playing a couple of holes ahead, Dartnall birdied the ninth to get to within two shots of the leader, but a bogey at ten brought a loss of momentum for the Royal Perth golfer. Dinwiddie’s putter let him down, crucially on the fifth green where he three putted for a par and promptly threw his ball into the nearby whins. His round only really came to life at seventeen where, after mis-hitting his sand shot onto the grass bank above Road Bunker, he holed his chip for par via the flagstick.
Cruising along at one under par for his round after 11 holes, Fisher scored one par, two birdies and four bogies in the last seven holes as his pairing with McNicoll turned into a classic matchplay situation. With the temperature rising to 25C, the Old Course played fast and hard, making distance control difficult.
Fisher played through the twelfth and did well to escape with a bogey from the rough. He sank a long putt for par at thirteen, repeating the trick for bogey at fourteen, where McNicoll missed a six-footer for birdie. Fisher punished that slip with a birdie at fifteen.
At almost the same time that both McNicoll and Fisher bogied sixteen, Dartnall took three shots to get down from the area of the eighteenth tee at the Road Hole and his chance was gone. By the time Fisher wrote down his five at the seventeenth he knew that a par finish would be enough to win. Having started his final round with a flourish, Fisher ended it in the same way by driving the eighteenth green and putting out for a birdie. His father, Rupert, who caddied for Oliver throughout, was the first to congratulate him.
This year’s Links Trophy was played in as varied a set of weather conditions as St Andrews can throw at players in only three days. The first round on the New Course was shrouded in haar, or sea mist, while the second day was dominated by a cool easterly wind off the ocean and the third by hot gusts from the west.
First round leader was Nigel Edwards, whose 64 is now the New Course record. Fisher scored a 66 which, added to his second round 70 on the Old Course, helped him to win the Ian Forbes Memorial Trophy for leading the event at the half-way stage. His final two rounds were 71 and 73.
The Links Trophy is now generally accepted as the world’s strongest amateur strokeplay competition and this year’s qualifying standard for the 144 strong field, drawn from 17 countries, was a handicap of +1.7.
Nevertheless, the Links provided a stern test for the cream of the amateur game: the cut for the final day’s play was made at 148, five over par.
Final scores 2006
Round three
Round two
Round one
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