Rotherham Success Stories
Danny Willett
Rotherham Golf Club is the only club in England to boast a US Masters Tournament winner as a member
Danny Willett, who won the coveted Major in 2016 joined us as a teenager in 2005 to learn from the good number of aspiring young players with scratch handicaps or better.
Among his peer group here were Matt Evans, Sam Haywood, Neil Walker and James Mason all of whom subsequently turned professional.
Danny soon fitted in and within two years he had his name on the club’s honours board as Club Champion, before going on to win the Yorkshire Amateur Championship, and the English Amateur Championship, which culminated in his selection for the GB&I Walker Cup squad. By the following season, he was the world’s number one amateur.
His bag from the Walker Cup stands proudly in our historic clubhouse, and the Masters champion remains a regular visitor when he is not on Tour.
We were delighted that he chose our club as the host for his homecoming press conference in 2016 when he happily posed wearing his Green Jacket.
Ben Schmidt
2019 - A year of success for 'our' Ben
Ben Schmidt became just the fourth golfer in history to win both the Brabazon Trophy and the Carris Trophy in the same calendar year when he won the English Boys’ Under 18 Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship at Moor Park Golf Club.
The 16-year-old from Rotherham Golf Club became the youngest ever winner of the English Men’s Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship (Brabazon Trophy) at Alwoodley in June and he completed a rare double when he claimed his second national title of the season in the boys’ equivalent in Hertfordshire.
His wins in both the Brabazon Trophy and the Carris Trophy mean he joins Patrick Hine (1949), Sandy Lyle (1975) and Peter Baker (1985) as the only players to have achieved that feat.
Schmidt started the last day as favourite after opening with rounds of 72, 67 and 72 but in the end he had to battle all the way after dropping three shots to par over the first five holes before recovering to post a level par 72 and finish tied with Spain’s Rodrigo Martin on five-under par 283.
Martin holed an 18-foot birdie putt on the 72nd green to tie with Schmidt but on the first extra hole he carved his tee shot into the trees on the right of the fairway and ultimately failed to get up and down from the edge of the green for his par. Schmidt hit a wedge to 20-feet and two-putted for a winning par.
“It’s been a tough day,” Schmidt admitted. “I’ve not played my best golf, or anything like it, but I dug in and eventually found something on the back nine to help me get across the line.”
I didn’t really feel comfortable all day,” he added, “but I got the job done and I’m very pleased with that. It’s great to get another win under my belt.
“My goal this year was simply to play as much good golf as I could. I put a lot of work in over the winter. I was hoping that would pay off but not for one second did I think it would be anything like this.
“It’s been a bit mad but I’m really enjoying it.”
Further down the leaderboard Norway’s Herman Wibe Sekne closed with a two-under par 70 to finish tied in third place with England’s William Skipp on 285 while another Englishman Oscar Doran fired a 69 to finish in a share of fifth place with Louis Dobbelaar from Australia two shots further behind.
It also proved to be a good event for Scotland’s Calum Scott who closed with a 70 to claim a share of seventh place with English trio Jake Hibbert, Archie Smith and Craig Passmore and Egor Eroshenko from the Czech Republic. The latter closed with a best of the day six-under par 66.
Scott also went on to collect some silverware of his own by winning the Hazards Salver awarded to the leading competitor under the age of 16.
That contest produced a Scottish 1-2 with the Nairn youngster beating compatriot Aidan O’Hagen by one shot on level par 288. England’s Jack Ingham, who plays out of the Eindhovensche Club in The Netherlands, was third on four-over par 292.
An Italian 2 squad comprising Luca Civello, Lorenzo Bruzzone and Alessandro Gambetti won the Nations Cup staged in conjunction with the first two rounds of the individual competition. They finished on level par 288 one shot ahead of an England 1 team made up of Ben Schmidt, Conor Gough and Max Hopkins.
