Hillside boys bid for Irish title

TWO of the four teenagers selected to represent England Golf in the Irish Boys’ Open Amateur Championship at Tuam on June 23-26 are from the North West.

Lancashire player Oliver Clarke, a member at Hillside, and Cheshire’s Rhys Nevin-Wharton, from Sandiway, will join forces with Warwickshire’s Max Martin and Gian-Marco Petrozzi, from Staffordshire.

They will be aiming to follow in the footsteps of Bradley Moore, of Derbyshire club Kedleston Park who won the title last year at Thurles in Tipperary.

The championship is played over 72 holes with a cut to the leading 50 players and ties after the third round.

The players:

Oliver Clarke, 16, (Hillside) was in England’s winning team at the 2014 Canadian International Junior Challenge and was third in the English U16 boys’ championship for the MacGregor Trophy. He is in the England Golf boys’ squad.

Max Martin, 17, (Ladbrook Park) represented Warwickshire at last year’s men’s County Finals and was third boy at the 2014 Fairhaven Trophies.

Rhys Nevin-Wharton, 17, (Sandiway) was the runner-up in last year’s Daily Telegraph Junior championship. He is in the England Golf boys’ squad.

Gian-Marco Petrozzi, 18, (Trentham) has had a string of high finishes this season in the Welsh strokeplay, the Darwin Salver, the Fairhaven Trophies and the Peter McEvoy Trophy.