Golf: Top British golfer to play in Auckland

Gary Wolstenholme, one of the most successful British amateur golfers in the last 20 years, heads the European team who will play the Asia-Pacific for the Bonallack Trophy at the Auckland Golf Club next week.

The 12-man teams will play a Ryder Cup-style match with four-balls and foursomes on April 26 and 27 and 12 singles on April 28.

The 44-year-old Wolstenholme has played in six Walker Cups, the amateur contests between the United States and Britain, and been on the winning side four times.

Wolstenholme was a member of the British team who lost the last contest narrowly and three of his cup team-mates will be at Middlemore, including English teenager Oliver Fisher, who at 16 years 11 months was the youngest ever Walker Cup player.

The other cup players are Richard Ramsay from Scotland and Nigel Edwards from Wales. The other British players are teenagers Rory McIlroy and Zac Gould. But the best-performed youngster is Norwegian Marius Thorp, 18 when he won the European amateur title last year.

Mark Purser and Josh Geary are the two Kiwis in the Asia-Pacific lineup, for whom the form player is Australian Won Joon Lee, who won the NZ amateur strokeplay title this month.