14 August 2015 – South Africa’s Keegan de Lange won four straight holes on the back nine at Royal Birkdale to defeat Zacharias Agerbak from Denmark and reach the quarter-finals of Boys Amateur Championship in North West England on Friday.
The Gauteng North junior was the lone South African to the 252-strong international field that started the 89th staging of the prestigious junior event at two of England’s finest Links Courses on Tuesday.
De Lange opened with a two-under-par 69 at Royal Birkdale and added a one over 72 at Southport and Ainsdale to finish fifth overall in the 36-hole Stroke Play Qualifier.
He finished just four strokes behind Englishman Bradley Moore, who claimed the medallist honours on six under 137.
Having made the top 64 that moved on to the Match Play stage, De Lange wasted no time in dispatching American Ben Albin 6 & 5 to reach the top 32 and prevailed 2 & 1 against Englishman Nathan Longley to the top 16.
De Lange and Agerbak were evenly match over the front nine, but the 18-year-old Pretoria golfer broke the deadlock at the 10th hole. He won the next three holes and wrapped up his spot in the quarter-final when he squared the 15th hole to beat the Dane 4 & 3.
De Lange will face off against English junior Billy Spooner, who downed Thomas Rosenmueller from Germany at 1-up.
Meanwhile Englishman Jordan Sundborg eliminated Moore 2 & 1 to join compatriots Spooner, Nathan Fell and Marco Penge in the quarter-finals alongside Borja Martin Torre from Spain, England’s, Guido Migliozzi from Italy and Sweden’s Marcus Svensson, who hopes to emulate compatriot Oskar Bergqvist, the 2014 champion.
PHOTO – Keegan de Lange from Gauteng North; credit Catherine Kotze / SASPA