Marsh on home territory for title defence

Marsh, a past member at Lightcliffe and Elland but now playing out of Huddersfield, is among 42 Yorkshire players who are taking part in the championship, which starts on Monday and ends with a 36-hole final on Saturday.

Also in the field is Ashley Chesters (Hawkstone Park) who tied 12th in The Open on nine-under par, together with Ali Balcombe (Clevedon), Paul Kinnear (Formby) and Ben Taylor (Walton Heath), who also qualified to play at St Andrews.

The English Amateur Championship is England Golf’s oldest tournament and was first played in 1925. Previous winners include Sir Nick Faldo, Danny Willett, Tommy Fleetwood and Paul Casey.

The Alwoodley is hosting the championship for the second time, while Pannal is co-hosting the stroke play qualifying rounds.

All 288 competitors will play one round at both clubs. Then, the leading 64 players and ties will qualify for the match play stages, which start on Wednesday, 29 July at Alwoodley.

Yorkshire players will represent 29 clubs in the county and include England Golf squad members Dan Brown (Bedale), Dan Wasteney (Bondhay), Joe Dean (Lindrick), Jonathan Thomson (Lindrick) and Jamie Bower (Meltham), as well as Marsh.

Interview with Marsh in Friday’s ‘Courier’