hr: Golfing

No matter who won, history was guaranteed to be made at the 113th British Amateur Championship. In the end, it was Dutchman Reinier Saxton who carved his own little niche in the game’s oldest amateur tournament by defeating England’s Tommy Fleetwood, 3 and 2, in the 36-hole final.

The 20-year-old from Amsterdam became only the second Dutch player to win in the 123-year history of the event.

Saxton lived up to 1990 champion Rolf Muntz’s exhortation. Muntz, who won the title at Muirfield 18 years ago, played in a Dutch tournament recently with Saxton and gave his young pretender just one order: “Bring back the trophy.”

Saxton ended his 17-year-old opponent’s dream of becoming the youngest player to win the Amateur Championship.

“It’s hard to realize it yet,” Saxton said. Saxton was 2 up with two holes to play in the morning round but lost the 17th and 18th to go back to all square at lunch. “It didn’t bother me losing the 17th and 18th because I just saw it as two lost holes in the middle of the match.”

The turning point came at the 11th, 12th and 13th holes. Saxton saved par from a bunker on the par-3 11th, then birdied the par-4 12th from 10 feet to win both holes and go 3-up. Fleetwood had a chance to win the 13th but did not get up and down from off the green.

Muntz played in the 1990 Open Championship and 1991 Masters and missed both cuts. Although he’s no longer on the European Tour, he won the Qatar Masters in 2000.

Saxton booked places in next month’s Open Championship and next year’s Masters as a result of winning.

Saxton moved to No. 50 in the Golfweek/Scratch Players World Amateur Ranking with the victory, while Fleetwood moved to No. 110.

Fleetwood, meanwhile, still has a two years of junior golf left to play.