Lancashire’s Jamie Van Wyk joined an illustrious list of England legends including Sir Nick Faldo, Tommy Fleetwood and Danny Willett, after winning the English Amateur Championship at Beau Desert Golf Club in Staffordshire on Sunday.
Van Wyk, 25, who is a member at Royal Lytham & St Annes, got through the stroke play stages as the 34th seed, before beating Maximilian Blake, Charlie Preston, Alex Timms, Luke Kelly and Ellis Bright on his way to the final against 20-year-old Morton Bailey from West Hove Golf Club in Sussex.
In the fantastic 36-hole final, Van Wyk was 1-down through 10 holes but bounced back to be 3-up through 24. And despite Bailey bringing the deficit back to one hole and looking set to win another with just six to go, Van Wyk made a crucial chip-in birdie from the rough to go 2-up and went on to seal a 4&2 win.
He said: “It’s unbelievable to join a list of England legends in winning this. It’s probably going to take a few days to set in. Golf is such an up-and-down journey. I haven’t played my best stuff this year – I had a good year coming into 2026 and a good start to the year, but since coming back to the UK it hasn’t necessarily been what I’d wanted.
“But I came second at the Walton Heath Trophy last week and this – I mean if you win once in a season of golf then you’ve done pretty well – so it’s an amazing feeling and I’m really proud.”
Three of the eventual champion’s knockout matches went to the final hole or extra holes, but the man who was ranked 673rd in the world amateur golf ranking coming into this event showed his mettle in finding ways to win throughout the week.
He admitted: “Saturday was a crucial point – I haven’t played my best all week and I found myself 2-down with four to play in a tough match against Luke, who I stayed at The Holiday Inn with for two nights! He’s a great lad and we had a great game but turning those matches around was massive and gave me the confidence to know that I can do it when I need to.”
There’s no time for celebrations for Van Wyk, who is representing England in the Women’s & Men’s Home Internationals this coming week.
“I’m flying to Ireland at 11am, and I’m hoping we can win the Home Internationals and bring back the trophy like we did last year,” said the 25-year-old.
The first 18 holes of the English Amateur Final were very tight, with seven of the first 10 holes halved. Bailey was 1-up on 9 after chipping to six feet and Van Wyk three-putting from the back of the green having hit the bunker off the tee.
But the Lancashire golfer rallied to win three on the spin from 11-14 as Bailey had a couple of errant tee shots and couldn’t recover for pars.
Van Wyk took a one-hole lead at the halfway point, before stretching to three by the 6th hole of the second round. Bailey couldn’t recover from the trees on 4 before conceding the birdie putt and Van Wyk drove greenside on 6 to make birdie.
However, his tee shot on the par-3 7th landed by the flag before going out the back and he couldn’t get up and down, before Bailey rolled in a huge swinging 35-foot birdie putt on the par-3 10th to reduce the deficit to just one hole.
Both went right on 11 before Van Wyk made a superb sand save for par to go back to 2-up, but Bailey fired right back with a fine birdie putt on 12.
Van Wyk pushed one right into a small ravine on the 13th but produced a sensational chip-in for birdie to win the hole when the match looked set to go all-square. And on the next hole, Bailey hit the greenside trap and couldn’t get up and down as Van Wyk went 3-up.
The duo parred the 15th but Van Wyk stuck one to four feet on the par-3 16th, and as Bailey’s birdie effort slid by, it was the moment for Van Wyk to be crowned champion with a 4&2 win.
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