Golf Rose falls to Foster

Golf

Mark Foster, the holder, survived his first-round match in the English Amateur Championship at Hunstanton yesterday against Justin Rose, who sprang to pro- minence in the recent qualifying competition for the Open with a round of 67 at the age of 14.

Foster was three up with three holes to play but Rose then chipped in at the 15th and holed a bunker shot at the next for successive birdies. The youngster, however, was too strong with his approach to the 17th and Foster won the hole and the match with a par.

There was an early departure for the England international Matthew Blackey, from Hayling, who lost to the Yorkshire teenager Mark Thomas at the 21st.

At the Scottish Amateur Championship, at Southerness, the defending champion, Hugh McKibbin, endured a nail-biting session before seeing off Fifer Stuart Meiklejohn 3 and 1.

Meiklejohn appeared to have McKibbin on the ropes when he stood one up with only five holes to play. But in temperatures approaching 90 degrees, he could not deliver the killer blow and the Scottish international showed his mettle to take four holes in a row from the 17th for victory.