Double dutch trophy haul just warm-up for Daan Huizing

IT MAY have been double Dutch but the message was loud and clear. In recording runaway wins in both the Lytham Trophy and St Andrews Links Trophy in recent weeks, Daan Huizing established himself as the clear favourite heading into this week’s Amateur Championship in Ayrshire.

Four years after compatriot Rainer Saxton lifted the title at Turnberry, the 21-year-old from Soest, near Utrecht, will bid to emulate the feat at Royal Troon, where he plays today in the first of the two qualifying rounds then moves on to Glasgow Gailes tomorrow as he bids to seal a place in the match-play phase back at the Open Championship venue later in the week.

That should be a formality if Huizing comes anywhere near producing the form that saw him become the first player to win those events at Royal Lytham and St Andrews in the same year, his combined margin of victory being an incredible 25 shots in two world-class fields.

“This [his 14-shot triumph in the Links Trophy] was just a warm-up for my real target, which is the Amateur at Royal Troon,” said Huizing, who cut his teeth on links courses during family holidays to Ireland but attributes his jaw-dropping efforts this season to time he spent practising in Scotland.

“Last year I came over here with one of the Dutch Federation coaches specifically to learn how to play in windy British conditions,” he revealed. “We worked on set-up, ball control in the wind, and it really helped me both at Lytham and at St Andrews.”

Having jumped four places to No 5 in the world on the back of his Links Trophy triumph, Huizing heads into the 117th staging of the Amateur Championship as the top-ranked player in a 288-strong field featuring competitors from 32 countries.

American Corbin Bills, the world No 7, and eighth-ranked Australian Jake Higginbottom are also among those chasing some tasty rewards – the winner gets into this year’s Open Championship as well as next year’s Masters and US Open – as is Austrian Manuel Trapel, the European Amateur champion.

The line-up also includes a strong South African contingent, with the highly-rated Brandon Stone being added to the sextet that completed their warm up with a win over Scotland in a two-day Test match at Prestwick last week.

“This must be one of the strongest Amateur Championship fields in recent years and spectators will get the opportunity to see some great golf from many of the talented young players who will become the top professionals of the future,” said Euan Mordaunt, the R&A’s new director of amateur events.

“The field also includes 11 members of the GB&I squad to face the Continent of Europe later this year in the St Andrews Trophy match at Portmarnock and two members of the victorious 2011 Walker Cup team, Vale of Glamorgan’s Rhys Pugh and Rathmore’s Alan Dunbar.”

The record books point to an English winner emerging on Saturday night. Gary Wolstenholme lifted the title at Royal Troon the last time it staged the event, in 2003, following in the spikemarks of two other English amateur legends, Peter McEvoy (1978) and Sir Michael Bonallack (1968).

As for the Scots, one of them will be hoping it can be a case of third-time lucky after James Byrne (at Muirfield two years ago) and Michael Stewart (at Hillside 12 months ago) both lost in the final, to South Korea’s Jin Jeong and Australian Bryden Macpherson respectively.

“I’m really looking forward to the challenge,” said Brian Soutar, the Leven Golfing Society player who won the South African Amateur Championship earlier this year. “I played in last year’s event at Hillside and Hesketh and missed the cut but I feel better equipped this time.

“My recent results haven’t reflected how well I’m hitting the ball but I’ve taken a great boost from the start I made to the year, winning in South Africa. I proved that I can win a big tournament and I have the ability to do it again.

• Admission and parking are free throughout this week’s event.