Jonathan Bell Eyes Double
Author: admin | Category: ArticlesRising star Jonathan Bell, will be seeking a unique double when he tees up in the 2010 Faldo Series Asia Grand Final, to be played over 54-holes on the Faldo Course at Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen, China, on March 10-12.
Bell, 18, from the Royal Blackheath Golf Club in Kent, won the Faldo Series European Grand Final in 2009, staged in the Olympic city of Rio de Janeiro back in October, and now hopes to go one better by becoming the first player to win the European and Asian Grand Finals back-to-back.
Bell will be joined by compatriot, Holly Clyburn,19, the English and French Under-18 champion and a member of the 2010 GB & I Curtis Cup squad, who won the main Girls’ title at the Grand Final in Brazil and so will be seeking her own double in China.
Both Bell and Clyburn will also be bidding to emulate European Tour stars, Nick Dougherty and Oliver Fisher, by becoming double Faldo Series Grand Final winners.
Other former Faldo Series graduates include World No. 9 Rory McIlroy, Scottish World Cup winner Marc Warren, LPGA Tour winner Yani Tseng and Ladies’ European Tour star Melissa Reid.
Bell first sprung to prominence back in 2004 when he won the English Boys’ Under-14 Championship at the age of 12 and he has seldom looked back since.
He enjoyed a highly successful 2008 season, winning the Sir Henry Cooper Junior Masters and the South East Junior Championship and then finished runner-up in the 2009 Lee Westwood Trophy before claiming the Faldo Series European title at the end of last year.
Off the course, competitors will spend time with Faldo, preparing for their discount golf clubs and will have the opportunity to learn from a number of other guest speakers.
The Kent-based teenager is looking forward to his trip to China but is under no illusions about how difficult it will be to emerge victorious against a 78-strong field from 18 separate nations that also includes fellow-Englishmen, Daniel Owen, 20, and Oliver Carr, 17.
Brogan Townend, 15, from Blackburn is also competing in the Girls’ Under-16 event having won the same age group title in Rio.
“It’s a great thrill to be heading to China to compete in the Asian Grand Final where I’d like nothing better than to win the title to add to the one I won in Rio,” he said.
Bell’s main challenger might well be 19 year-old Indian, Rashid Khan, who is bidding for a unique treble having won the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final for the last two years in-a-row.
Other leading competitors in the Boys’ field, which is separated into three age categories, Under-16, Under-18 and Under-21, will include Gavin Green, the 2009 Malaysian Closed Amateur champion, Khan’s compatriot S. Chikkarangappa who recently became the youngest-ever winner of the All India Amateur Championship, the in-form 16 year-old from Hong Kong, Liu Lok-tin, winner of the 2010 China Junior Open and Hong Kong Closed Amateur and 14 year-old Japanese golfer, Masamichi Ito, who last year became the youngest player to make the cut on the Japan Golf Tour.
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