Romain Langasque of France held off Scotland’s Grant Forrest to win the 120th Amateur Championship at Carnoustie in Angus earlier today.
Romain Langasque of France held off Scotland’s Grant Forrest to win the 120th Amateur Championship at Carnoustie in Angus earlier today.
Langasque prevailed in the 36-hole final by 4&2 and, with the victory, has earned a start in next month’s Open Championship at St Andrews, a place in next year’s US Open and an invitation to the 2015 US Masters.
“This is just a dream for me,” he said. “It is just incredible that I am going to play at St Andrews in one month’s time for The Open.”
Langasque took the lead early in the first round of the 36-hole final, winning the par-4 3rd hole. Then, from the 8th, the Frenchman reeled off three straight birdies to move four clear and take control of the match.
Forrest, from Cragielaw Golf Club in East Lothian, looked down and out when he bogeyed the 11th to drop five holes behind, but he bounced back with a superb eagle at the 12th. Langasque wasn’t intimidated by the Scotsman’s rally. He took the 14th hole to move five clear once more.
Forrest came back again with a birdie at the 15th and then won the 16th with a par. The pair traded blows on the 17th and 18th holes and, as a result, Langasque took a three-hole lead into the afternoon round.
Forrest might have hoped to close the gap early in round two, but that objective was hampered by his opening drive of the afternoon. It found a bush on the left side of the fairway and the Scotsman lost the 19th hole. He also lost the 20th and the 21st holes. When the youngster missed the green at the 23rd and lost another hole, he fell seven behind.
“The start this afternoon really killed it for me,” said Forrest after the round. “Coming back from seven down was always going to be a tall order.”
But the Scot did fight back, and with some tenacity. He won the 24th, 26th, 30th and 32nd holes to claw the deficit back to just three holes.
But Langasque steadied his ship well with a superb 7-iron on the 33rd hole, the 15th at Carnoustie, from a fairway bunker to earn a half. Another half at the par-3 16th was enough to secure the victory.
Langasque is the third Frenchman to win the Amateur Championship. He follows Philippe Ploujoux in 1981 and Julien Guerrier in 2006.
