wanted me to get
that behind me, but
then offered me the opportunity to try playing on the amateur circuit. “My granddad has a place in Spain so I can go there to play through the winter. If you don’t play all year you aren’t really giving yourself the best chance.” Other highlights of Matt’s season included coming fourth in the Irish stroke play, sixth in the Duncan Putter in Wales, and tied third in the Hampshire Salver. He was also runner-up in the Dutch Junior Open. His Hampshire Hog victory saw hard
work and ever increasing self-confidence pay off. After shooting a 67 in the morning round, Matt found himself tied for the lead, and realised he was in with a chance of winning. But when he shot a triple bogey seven
on the sixth hole in the afternoon, driving into trees and then thinning his approach shot into a bunker, the pressure was on. “Experience tells in those situations,”
recalls Matt. “I knew I was playing well and said to myself it was just a one off. “I then made a couple of pars and then
on 10 I sank a 25 foot putt for birdie. That gives you momentum. I had four birdies in a 31 coming home.” His two under par 68 for the afternoon
was enough to seal his triumph by that comfortable four shot margin. “Winning the Hampshire Hog took a bit of pressure off me in one way, but in another it raised my own expectations of what I can do and that, in its own way, is an added pressure.” The season over, Matt felt it had gone
pretty much as planned. Despite the odd disappointment, like missing the cut of the North of England at Alwoodley Golf Club, and being forced by illness to retire from the English Amateur, his Hog triumph secured one of his goals - to win a tournament; and he has comfortably exceeded
his ambition to be ranked
among the world’s top 500 amateur golfers - at time of writing he is 404th. “I am taking my golf a year at a time and a competition at a time. I would love to be selected for the Walker Cup.” The Hoylake links
are the spiritual
home of the Walker Cup Match, for it was Royal Liverpool where the event was informally trialed in 1921. It would be clearly an extraordinary moment and achievement for Matt if he could take
10 ROYAL LIVERPOOL GOLF CLUB MAGAZINE 2 017
I would love to be selected for the Walker Cup
Above: In action at the Dutch Junior Open
Below: Matt has been champion at Royal Liverpool for the last two years.
part and the Club wishes him well. (You can read part two of our history of the Walker Cup starting on page 27.) And will he ever join the professional
ranks? “I would love to play golf for a living one day, but, like I say, I am taking it one step at a time,” he replies. Matt has been champion at Royal
Liverpool for the last two years. The Club is passionate about the amateur game, with the proud boast that the only three amateurs who have ever won The Open were all Hoylake members. Safe to say that Royal Liverpool is very
proud of Matt and right behind him. “I couldn’t do it without the Club’s
support,” he says. “You have to treat it as a job, Monday to Friday, 8-5 – though I play to 6 or 6.30pm. I have to work really hard and make a few sacrifices with my friends and doing other stuff. But there is nothing I like to do more than pitch up to a big competition, stepping onto the first tee amongst these really good players. It gives me a buzz inside. “That’s why I practice so much,
so I can play against some of the best amateurs in the world.” n
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