England’s Benjamin Schmidt, the top ranked player in the field, has comfortably advanced in his quest to win The 125th Amateur Championship.
Taking on Brandon Dietzel of Germany, Schmidt who is ranked 35th on the World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR®), played solid golf to record a 3&2 victory across the famed Royal Birkdale links.
The 18-year-old advances to meet Callan Barrow in tomorrow’s third round after the Englishman, who finished runner-up in the English Men’s Amateur Championship, defeated Lewis Irvine of Scotland 2&1.
There will be a disappointment for the leading qualifier Ruben Lindsay of Scotland. The 16-year-old was knocked out of the Championship 2&1 by Ilari Saulo of Finland who also disposed of England’s Sam Bairstow 3&1 in the first round of matches in the morning.
The Finnish Amateur Champion will now go head-to-head with Victor H. Sidal Svendsen of Denmark who won by 1 hole to progress past Ben Chamberlain of Wales.
Thomas Plumb, a member of the 2019 Great Britain and Ireland Walker Cup team, has moved through to the last-32 thanks to a 4&3 victory over Robert Moran of Ireland. Plumb got off to a fast start and was six-up through the turn but found the going much tougher on the challenging back nine holes of Royal Birkdale.
Plumb will now face fellow Englishman Callum Farr in the third round after he progressed by defeating Davide Buchi of Italy by one hole.
Having qualified for the match play stage by a single stroke, Frenchman David Ravetto, who won the Brabazon Trophy last week, went head-to-head with the English Amateur champion Jack Cope. Opening with a birdie, Ravetto went one-up after the first before comfortably winning the match 5&4. He will now play Marc Hammer of Germany on Friday after he earned his place in the next round by winning his match 2&1 over Rasmus Karlsson of Finland.
Drawing inspiration from Padraig Harrington, Ireland’s Mark Power won his match against Jannik de Bruyn of Germany thanks to a 2&1 victory. He advances to play England’s Jack Dyer in the last-32.
This is only the fourth time The Amateur Championship has been hosted at Royal Birkdale following the previous stagings in 1946, 1989 and 2005.
The match play stage continues tomorrow with the last-16 and last-eight ties, with the winner in Sunday’s 36-hole final gaining exemptions into The 149th Open at Royal St George’s next July and by tradition, an invitation to play in the Masters Tournament and an exemption to the US Open.
The R&A Tour Release, Aug 29, 2020
