Rob came back from playing in the Portuguese and Spanish Amateur Championships in early Spring. He is a member of the English Golf Union ‘B’ squad, a recognition of his abilities, and as such the eight rounds he has played were a first chance to impress the selectors and to start his season early, something any top amateur is looking for.

He didn’t putt well in Portugal (34 and 38 putts each round) at Estella whilst at El Saler, for much of the qualifying for the Spanish Amateur Rob was probably leading. There was a double bogey however, then a triple and an eleven at a par 5, so Rob did not appear in the later stages.

Before heading South to the Mediterranean, Rob had been working very hard at Hawksbury Golf Centre. He is very much the man for any work there from tending to the course to working at the Driving range, the latter his best chance for Winter practice. Throughout this Spring and Summer, Rob will fit in shifts as and when he can because unlike Tiger Woods, Rob does not gets weeks off to hone his game without interruptions. His season starts in the middle of March and runs through to July and beyond. It used to be that after July, there was only really the English Amateur but now, there are still championships through until October.

Rob’s first event of the year in the UK was the Sunningdale Foursomes, in partnership with fellow Kenilworth member (and Golf Foundation representative) Gareth Jenkins. It was unfortunately a first round loss After that the strokeplay championships started with the Berkhamstead Trophy, the West of England, and the Duncan Putter.

The Lytham Trophy is perhaps the first Amateur ‘Major’ of the year and is closely followed by the Brabazon (the English Strokeplay Championships). The very best will also be at the St Andrews Links Trophy. Rob missed the cut in the Brabazon by one shot round the very tough The Oxfordshire links, a course which has hosted a number of European Tour events.

To get into the British Amateur, players must have a handicap of more than +2, so for newly married Paul Randle, ‘the’ Amateur will not be part of Paul’s schedule. The same applies to Andy Colley who is also recently wed. Paul works with computers in engineering and he plays as much as he can as soon as the evenings get light and as many weekends as possible. He has to find as much time as is possible for his golf to keep, and hopefully to lower his handicap to make the ‘majors’ available.

Rob will try to qualify for the Matchplay stages of the British Amateur, and will play in the Scottish and Irish Opens. The English Amateur is Matchplay from Round 1 and all the payers mentioned in this editorial will qualify for those Championships. Later in August and Rob will be at the European Amateur in Belgium.

Other National events will include the Berkshire Trophy, the South of England and the North of England Youths.

At Midland level, Rob had the Midland Closed Championships to defend at Burton-on-Trent (most players including Rob were literally blown away but Warwickshire’s Andy Sullivan lost out in a play-off) and he will play in the Midland Open at Little Aston. He will also fit in a selected number of Midland Order of Merits events, notably those at Finham, Kings Norton and Whittington.

Rob will be available for the County 6 qualifier at Worfield and for County matches from the middle of the summer. He will of course play in the Warwickshire Amateur at Robin Hood, which he won in 2003.

This is the first of three preview articles for the 2005 Warwickshire Amateur Championship. Tomorrow there will be news of past five times Amateur Champion Tom Whitehouse, now in his third year as a professional, and on Monday, there will be a course preview.