TITLES GALORE FOR ENGLAND'S MENS GOLFERS

1999 will be remembered for many things but within the English Golf Union it will be recalled as the year when their golfers reigned supreme. In a spectacular season, World, European and National titles have fallen to England's highly skilled men, all of whom have benefited from a well-established coaching system.

From last November when Luke Donald and Gary Wolstenholme helped Great Britain & Ireland win the Eisenhower Trophy in Chile, it has been a chronicle of victories from both the mean and boys supporting the rose of England.

Despite missing some accomplished players away at college in America, Donald amongst them, England secured an emphatic 16-8 victory over Spain at Walton Heath in May. England supplied six of the 10 players in the victorious Walker Cup team at Nairn, while an unprecedented seventh successive victory was achieved in the Home Internationals at Royal County Down.

Peter McEvoy, Walker Cup Captain and EGU Marketing Consultant says, "We are now seeing the fruits of years of hard development work by the English Golf Union. I believe this trend will continue which is great news for future Walker and Ryder Cups."

The only title that got away was the European Team Championship in Italy where England has to be satisfied with fourth place behind the host country.

Individually, the English players have been just as triumphant. In a gripping final of the Amateur Championship at Royal County Down, Graeme Storm overcame international colleague Aran Wainwright to take the coveted title, while Mark Side won the Brabazon Trophy, Darren Henley the Berkshire Trophy and Wolstenholme the Berkhamsted Trophy.

In the Open Championship at Carnoustie, Donald and 16-year-old Zane Scotland, came through the qualifying stages to play 36 holes of the Championship proper. ON top of all that, in an all-England final of the British Mid-Amateur, John Kemp from Bedfordshire beat Yorkshire's Stephen East.

Overseas, English players have met with continued success. Philip Rowe reached the semi-finals of the Spanish Amateur while Simon Dyson carried of the Finnish Amateur, while in the United States the College Circuit has seen English names to the fore with Donald winning the NCAA Championship and being voted their Player of the Year. Paul Cassey, who won the English Amateur with a narrow victory over international team-mate Dyson, also shone across the Atlantic, carding a round of 60 in one collegiate competition.

Donald and Casey have blossomed on the US college circuit along with many others while more English talent is swelling the ranks over there. This, along with England's continuing coaching set-up, from club and county through regional to national level, will continue to nurture talent and keep the English rose flying high throughout the game.