The Saltire was vanquished at St George’s yesterday as the last three Scottish hopefuls were ousted from the 122nd Amateur Championship over the Sandwich links.
With thunder and lightning on the south east coast causing a delay to proceedings, Craig Howie, the former Scottish Boys’ champion, was the first to fall in the morning’s third round encounters when he went down at the 20th hole of a tight tussle with Norwegian Kristoffer Ventura.
However, Oban’s Robert MacIntyre, runner-up in the championship at Porthcawl last year, and Anglo-Scot, Ryan Lumsden, both enjoyed slender one hole wins in the last 32 before their title tilts were thwarted in the afternoon’s fourth round ties.
MacIntyre, the former Scottish Amateur champion, lost on the final green to Sweden’s Fredrik Nilehn while Lumsden went down by two holes against Norway’s Jarle Volden.
Argentina’s Alejandro Tosti is emerging as one to watch as he progressed to the quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old, with an impressive pedigree on the US college scene, beat England’s Charlie Strickland by a 4&3 margin in the last 16 but it was a titanic tussle in the morning with Caolan Rafferty, the No 1 seed, which caught the attention.
Tosti eventually triumphed at the seventh extra hole but a rules rumpus stirred his Latin temperament. He had been one down playing the last but when Rafferty hoiked his drive into the rough, Tosti felt the search for the ball went on longer than the time allowed.
Tosti birdied the final hole to force the sudden-death shoot-out, which he eventually won at the 25th, but he was far from happy,
“The referee made a big mistake,” Tosti said. “I told him ‘thank God I made birdie (on 18) because I would be out of the tournament and it wouldn’t be fair because that ball was lost’.”
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