Calum Scott holds a three-shot advantage after 54 holes over his nearest rival for The Open Championship Silver Medal.
Royal Troon started the week with 12 hopefuls vying for the prestigious Silver Medal, awarded to the low amateur at The Open Championship and the Claret Jug presentation ceremony.
After the cut was made at +6 on Friday night on the Ayrshire coast, only four remained in with a shout, and 18 wet holes later, Scotland’s Calum Scot was sitting in pole position with one round left to play.
Scott, the R&A’s Open Amateur Series winner finds himself on +3 (T28) with a three-shot buffer over Denmark’s Jacob Skov Olsen. America’s Tommy Morrison is a further three behind Olsen with Spain’s Luis Masaveu all but out of the race on +13.
Rounds of 71 and 75 on Thursday and Friday positioned the man from Nairn comfortably inside the cut at +4. Playing alongside England’s Joe Dean on Saturday, Scott produced his best golf of the week, with a positive birdie-to-bogey ratio, carding a one-under-par 70.
“It’s been an unbelievable experience, said Scott.
“There’s obviously another amateur in the field, and my goal is to beat him, try and get a Silver Medal. I think that’s the goal for me.”
Last year saw big-hitting South African Christo Lamprecht win the Silver Medal at Royal Liverpool, however, the award is not guaranteed every year. Troon hasn’t handed one out in the last two Opens because no amateurs made the cut.
The low amateur contest at The Open is one of the Major’s most exciting subplots. Over the years the Silver Medal has been won by many future stars of the game including Hal Sutton, Jose Maria Olazabal, Tiger Woods, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, and Matt Fitzpatrick. Only two, however, have gone on to lift the Claret Jug.
Tiger Woods was the first to achieve the feat in 1996 at Royal Lytham, finishing T22 to win the Silver Medal. Unbelievably, Tiger was slipping on a Masters green jacket less than a year later. And the second, a fresh-faced Rory McIlroy in 2007, who introduced himself on golf’s main stage with the only bogey-free round of Hoylake’s opening day. It propelled him to the Silver Medal and on a trajectory to winning the first of his four Major titles at the 2011 US Open, lifting the Claret Jug in 2014.
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Ross Tugwood
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Ross Tugwood is a Senior Digital Writer for todays-golfer.com, specializing in data, analytics, science, and innovation.
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