International call up for Tom Gregory
Eight of England’s leading U16 players will follow in the footsteps of some great names next week when they take on Spain at Preston Golf Club, Lancashire. Ryder Cup player Matt Fitzpatrick and fellow Tour winners Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston, Tommy Fleetwood and Melissa Reid all figured in the international U16 match back in their early amateur days.
This year’s match will be played over the weekend of 27-28 May and the mixed team is Barclay Brown of Yorkshire, Dominic Clemons of Cambridgeshire, Annabell Fuller of Surrey, Tom Gregory from Berks, Bucks and Oxon, Charlie Hilton of Sussex, Lily May Humphreys of Essex, Mimi Rhodes of Somerset and Caitlin Whitehead of Cumbria.
The match started as a curtain raiser to the North of England U16 Championship, with England enjoying much success in the encounters at Pannal and Heswall. It was expanded three years ago into a stand-alone two-day match and since then the Spanish have been all-conquering, winning at Madrid in 2014, at Seacroft, Lincolnshire in 2015 and again in Madrid last year. The England team will be keen to end that run at Preston. This is the second time Preston has hosted a major junior event in the last two years. In 2015 the club staged the English U14 boys’ open championship for the Reid Trophy, which attracts an international field.
Tom’s selection comes after he finished fourth in the Midland U16 championship and 11th in the Fairhaven Trophies. He also played for England in the recent international U16 quadrangular match. We wish Tom the very best of luck!
