Yorkshire’s Dan Brown to defend his English title

Yorkshire’s Dan Brown will defend his title when the English Amateur Championship is played next week at The Berkshire Golf Club, from 1-6 August.

He’s among 288 players who will set out in pursuit of the prized trophy, aiming to follow such past winners as Tommy Fleetwood, Danny Willett and Paul Casey, who was the last player to successfully defend the title in 1999 and 2000.

The field is packed with champions, underlining the strength of English golf. Among those lining up with Brown (Masham) are Matthew Jordan (Royal Liverpool) who won the St Andrews Links Trophy and currently tops the England men’s order of merit; Jack Singh Brar (Remedy Oak), the Lytham Trophy winner; Josh Hilleard (Farrington Park), the French open winner; Gian-Marco Petrozzi (Trentham Park), the Welsh open winner; and Scott Gregory (Corhampton) the 2016 Amateur Champion.

Tom Sloman (Taunton & Pickeridge) has just won the U21 Dutch junior open; Max Martin (Ladbrook Park) is the Welsh youths’ champion; Charlie Strickland (Ham Manor) has won the Duncan Putter and the Peter McEvoy Trophy; while Ben Jones (Northamptonshire County) currently tops the England boys’ order of merit, helped by a win in the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters.

The host club is fielding three players in the championship, Edward Cartwright, Iain Henderson and Trevor Ball, who will all enjoy the benefit of home advantage.

The players will all face the challenge of The Berkshire’s Red and Blue courses, designed by Herbert Fowler, lined with pine and heather and regarded as amongst the best in the British Isles.

All 288 competitors will play a qualifying round on each course before the top 64 players and ties go forward to the match play stages on the Red course.