Amateur round-up: Hurley narrowly beaten

Ireland’s Gary Hurley lost out by a single hole in the 36-hole final of the Spanish International Amateur Championship at Sherry Golf in Jerez.

Ireland’s Gary Hurley lost out by a single hole in the 36-hole final of the Spanish International Amateur Championship at Sherry Golf in Jerez.

Hurley looked to have the title in the bag when he was two-up with just three holes to play against Jeroen Krietemeijer of Holland. But the 21-year-old Dutchman produced a superb finish to deny the Irish player. Krietemeijer birdied the 16th and eagled the 17th to get back on level terms. When Hurley was unable to get up-and-down from short of the 18th green, a par was good enough for the Dutch player to take the Copa del Rey.

It was a disappointment for Hurley who was hoping to join the likes of Darren Clarke and Philip Walton as past Irish winners of the competition. But he could console himself with the fact that, together with Gavin Moynihan and Jack Hume, he had helped Ireland to win the Nations Cup earlier in the week. (A team competition held concurrently with the strokeplay qualifying for the matchplay stages.)

Down in South Africa, Scotland’s Greig Marchbank defeated the home country's top-ranked Tristen Strydom in a sudden-death playoff to claim the Proudfoot Trophy as the leading qualifier for the match-play stages of the Sanlam South African Amateur Championship at Silver Lakes Golf Estate.

Marchbank returned scores of 67 and 71 to tie Strydom on a two-round total of 138, then came through the playoff in fading light at the second extra hole.

The 20-year-old was delighted to secure the victory but was keen to stress his focus was on the main event – the matchplay.

“It means a lot, obviously,” he said. “The main trophy is the Match Play, but it's definitely good to win the Stroke Play. It's like a notch in the belt and I'm delighted.”

Germany’s Olivia Cowan won the Spanish Ladies International Amateur Championship at Real Club Pineda De Sevilla. The 18-year-old has English parents but she lives in Germany as her father Andrew is a club pro there. Cowan beat defending champion Linnea Strom of Sweden in the final.