WALKER CUP DUO CARRY
ENGLISH HOPES DOWN UNDER

 

Walker Cup heroes Luke Donald and Paul Casey have been selected to represent the English Golf Union in the annual Lake Macquarie tournament at Belmont Golf Club, New South Wales on 27-30 January.

Both players are currently at college in the United States and will meet up in America before travelling direct to Australia for what is one of the most prestigious amateur tournament in the Southern Hemisphere.

Neither Donald nor Casey has been to Australia before but both are looking forward to extending their already successfully playing careers on new territory and are quietly confident of doing well. "I'll be disappointed if we aren't contesting for the title", says Casey.

Both have been major players in the US college circuit over the past two seasons. Casey, 22, is currently ranked Number 1, while Donald, despite lifting the NCAA Player of the Year title, is ranked second. "Luke has won a couple more events than me, but don't ask me how they work out the rankings," adds Casey.

In the Walker Cup at Nairn they emerged with 100% records. Captain Peter McEvoy, teamed together in the foursomes for two wins while they won both their singles encounters in what proved to be a magnificent 15-9 triumph that brought the trophy back this side of the Atlantic.

Donald, 22, is in the middle of a three-year course in art at Northwestern near Chicago, where he is a key member of their Wildcat golf team. He says, "As far as the Walker Cup went, we couldn't have wished for anything better. Paul and I made a good team and I have always wanted to go to Australia."

Casey, who has 18 months of his scholarship in Arizona to complete, is equally eager to sample what Australia has to offer. "I'm really looking forward to it and to teaming up with Luke again. The Walker Cup was a fantastic experience and I think we were a pretty strong partnership."

Not that the English pair will find it easy at Belmont. Most of the golf-playing nations send teams while the Australians are likely to include Aaron Baddeley, surprise winner of the recent Australian Open, and Brett Rumford, who won the following week's ANZ Players Championship. Rumford won the Lake Macquarie in 1998 beating Gary Wolstenholme in a play-off.

The English Golf Union has regularly entered players for the long-established Lake Macquarie event and several have carried off the title, the most recent being Russell Claydon in 1989 and Ricky Willison in 1991.